Suspicions confirmed: St. Antoninus not a "pro-choice Catholic saint"

Amy Welborn called upon the resources of her readers in her own post and has now published some answers to the questions I posed earlier:

From The Soul of the Embryo: An enquiry into the status of the human embryo in the Christian tradition by David Albert Jones, London: Continuum Books, 2004; ISBN 0 8264 6296 0.

"The first Christians followed the Jewish ethical principle that 'we do not set aside one life for another.' However, they faced a difficulty in accepting that 'her life takes precedence over its life', for they saw the life of the unborn child as equally inviolable. The practical question of what to do in a situation in which a woman's life was threatened by her pregnancy was therefore extremely problematic for Christians. It is not altogether surprising that in the first thousand years of the Church's history, theologians preferred to pass over this difficulty in silence and to speak of abortion in circumstances where they were clear that it was sinful. It was not until the late Middle Ages that Christian theologians begin to address directly the question of abortion to save the woman's life."

"One of the first to discuss this case was Antoninus of Florence. He declared that it was neither legitimate to kill the woman to save the child (by Caesarean section) nor to kill the infant to save the woman (by abortion). If the only way to save someone is by killing someone else, it is better to do nothing. However, he made one exception to this rule. Citing fellow Dominican John of Naples, he argued that before the soul was infused into the embryo (which, following Thomas Aquinas, he regarded as occurring at 40 days for males and 80 days for females) it was legitimate to abort the embryo to save the mother's life. This was not homicide, strictly speaking. However, an act that destroyed the early embryo and so prevented a child from coming to be was very close to homicide, therefore it could only be justified to save the mother's life. Furthermore, it it were doubtful whether or not the embryo possessed a human soul then it was not to be harmed. Antoninus only permitted abortion of the pre-ensouled embryo to save the mother's life. Nevertheless, it was very significant in explicitly allowing an exception to the traditional prohibition. Antoninus had great authority and was followed by several theologians such as Sylvester Prierias (d. 1523) and Martin Aspilcueta (1493-1586), more commonly known as Doctor Navarrus." [pp. 178-179; emphasis added]

- and -

"... a principle that was accepted as early as Antoninus of Florence: it there is uncertainty as to whether the soul has been infused, then it should be assumed for practical purposes that it has. It is unethical to risk homicide." [p. 188]

[Amy adds more from Mirror of Justice:]

"The book to consult on this issue is John Connery S. J.'s book "Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective" (Loyola University Press 1977). Father Connery explains that Antoninus relied on the distinction between the animated and unanimated fetus that was prevalent before the process of fetal development was understood. Antoninus condemned abortion of the animated fetus in all cases. For the unanimated fetus, Antoninus allowed abortion to save the life of the mother. According to Father Connery, this was completely dependent on the distinction between the animated and unanimated fetus and so I don't think it is fair to cite Antoninus as supporting a pro-choice position. Later commentators who defend "abortion" to save the life of the mother (removal of a cancerous uterus) do so not because they defend the direct, intentional killing of a human life but because they regard the death of the fetus in such circumstances as incidental."

"It is true that there have been individual Catholics who defend a "pro-choice" position (I suppose Daniel MaGuire, who has used the example of St. Antoninus, is one example). I don't think this supports the view that the Magisterium has taken conflicting views on the moral permissibility of abortion. And, I don't think it fair to use St. Antoninus's views on abortion to support the view that the Church has taken different views on this question. From Father Connery's account, St. Antoninus sounds more like Pope John Paul in Evangelium Vitae than Daniel MaGuire."

I think we can safely lay this issue to rest. A big 'thank you' to everyone who contributed comments to my original post on this topic. Faulty claims just can't stand up to good research and logic.

The final score:

Dan MaGuire, USA Today, et al. - 0.

St. Antoninus, The Truth, et al. - 1.