MENTAL LIFE 



of canon law was very happily given the official title 

 of Extravagaiitcs. Among the "extravagant" nonsense 

 which the papacy included in canon law as a moral 

 code for believers is its view of the psychic life of the 

 embryo. The "immortal soul" is supposed to enter the 

 soulless embryo only several weeks after conception. 

 As theologians and metaphysicians are very much di- 

 vided as to the period of this entrance of the soul, and 

 know nothing about the structure of the embryo and its 

 development, we will only recall the fact that the human 

 foetus cannot be distinguished from that of the anthro- 

 poid ape and other mammals even in the sixth week of 

 its development. The outline of the five cerebral vesicles 

 and the three higher sense-organs (nose, eye, and ear 

 vesicle) is discernible in the head ; the two pairs of limbs 

 can be traced in the shape of four simple roundish 

 unjointed plates; and the pointed tail sticks out at the 

 lower part, the rudimentary legacy from our long-tailed 

 ape-ancestors. Although the cortex is not yet developed 

 at this stage, the embryo may be considered to have a 

 "soul" {cf. chapters xiv. and xv. of my AjitJiropogoiy, 

 and plates 8-14). 



It is said to be a great merit of canon law that it 

 was the first to extend legal protection to the human 

 embryo, and punished abortion with death as a mortal 

 sin. But as this mystical theory of the entrance of the 

 soul is now scientifically untenable, we should expect 

 them consistently to extend this protection to the foetus 

 in its earlier stages, if not to the ovum itself. The ovary 

 of a mature maid contains about 70,000 ova; each of 

 these might be developed into a human being under 

 favorable circumstances if it united with a male sper- 

 mium after its release from the ovary. If the state is 

 so eager for the multiplication of its citizens in the 

 general interest, and regards prolific reproduction as a 

 "duty" of its members, this is certainly a "sin of 



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