A human clone will receive a rational soul

From Mr Anthony McCarthy
Sir, Heather Buttery (7th March) explains that in saying that the soul must "precede" the body she means precede in the Thornistic sense of "taking precedence".
However, such precedence does not imply that God would not unite a soul to human materials arranged in an appropriate manner.
If asexual reproduction is the reason why Miss Buttery thinks a human clone could not receive a rational soul, does she accept that, according to this logic, human embryos produced by twinning (i.e. splitting of a prior embryo either naturally or artificially) lack such souls? A human embryo produced by cell nuclear transfer is indeed produced in an asexual way. Nevertheless, the human clone would have the same basic genetic structure as any other human embryo, and would subdivide/develop and function in the same way.
According to Miss Buttery, a being with a human genome would not necessarily have a human soul. What kind of soul would he animating a being with all the developmental powers of a human being, the same genetic structure as a human being, and the same physical appearance as a human being?
As far as the Church is concerned, the Holy See stated on 23rd September last year: "...we must remember that every process involving human cloning is itself a reproductive process in that it generates a human being at the very beginning of his or her development, i.e. a human embryo." The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "The human body shares in the dignity of the image of God: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit (364)." When the Church refers to a human embryo it does so with this teaching in mind. The Church does not hold that what it calls a human embryo can have anything other than a human soul.
If proof is supplied that human clones have been produced, such clones will begin as human embryos and will therefore possess human souls.
Yours faithfully ANTHONY MCCARTHY, Research Fellow, Linacre Centre This correspondence is now concluded — Editor