Peter G Bolland
Extract
As president of the Toronto Catholic Doctors Guild I must point out a divergence from traditional Roman Catholic teaching alleged to have been promulgated by Father David Roy of the Centre for Bioethics of the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal (Can Med Assoc J 1981; 125: 507, 509). Dorothy Trainor, the author, reported that Father Roy believes that since physical characteristics of “individuation” have been shown by experimental evidence to take place 14 to 21 days after conception he would have no qualms about abortion before that time. Such a view is, of course, entirely contrary to the teaching of our church and would seem to presume that the infusion of soul by God must necessarily await physical “individuation”. . . our behavioural guidelines must not be compromised by the thesis expounded by Father Roy.
Bolland PG. (Correspondence) Abortion before “individuation”. Can Med Assoc J. 1982;126(3):231.