SUBJECT: SC-VE: Teaching Values Education in the Elementary Grades

TOPIC: Religious Perspectives on Some Personhood Issues

Some of the most common religions and their stance on how a human person acquires personhood can be
seen below:

1. CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE

In 2017, the Roman Catholic Church released a statement saying that human personhood begins with
the fertilization of an egg by a sperm.

2. BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE

A human being receives his personhood the moment an embryo has been implanted in the mother’s
womb. Buddhists also believe that studies can be done while the embryo is developing in the uterus to
help humankind.

3. HINDU PERSPECTIVE

Reincarnation is one important phase in the cycle of life according to the most Hindus. The beginning of
personhood for most Hindus corresponds with the moment of conception, thus human embryos, even
during their earliest phase of development, deserves respect (Sivaraman & Noor, 2014). The Hindus,
though, allow the destruction of human embryos in certain situations, such as when it endangers the life
of a mother (TIWARI, 2013).

4. JEWISH PERSPECTIVE

Human beings develop from an embryo. This fact is respected by the Jewish faith, but an embryo’s
status as a person is not yet assigned until the 40th day. The Jews believe that the soul begins to reside
in the developing embryo at this time; however, the Babylonians only assigned personhood to a fetus
once he is born (Ron-El & Rizk, 2012).

5. ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

Similar to Jewish faith, the potential for an embryo to develop into a human being made the Islam respect
it, but actual life and potential life are two different concepts, hence they do not accord personhood on a
blastocyst. They also believe that human ensoulment only happens from the 40th day of embryo
development (Smith & Revel, as cited in Neaves, 2017)