Thomas Aquinas, Augustine and Aristotle on ‘delayed animation’

In the context of moral disputes over abortion and embryo experimentation, it is frequently claimed that Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, or Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, or all three shared a common view on the ensoulment of the human embryo. The character of these moral disputes is such that few on either side challenge such claims. Instead, the focus of debate tends to be on how to apply the ideas of these ancient thinkers in the modern context. The present article challenges the claim that Aristotle and Augustine held the same view as Thomas on the ensoulment of the embryo. In fact, neither affirmed the central Thomist thesis that the human rational soul is “created by God at the end of human generation”. Both Aristotle and Augustine seem, rather, to imply that the rational principle is present in some way from the time the embryo is conceived. There is much to be gained from engaging directly with the thought of Augustine and Aristotle and not only reading them through the lens of a later thinker, even one as great as Thomas Aquinas.