(1) If 'ensoulment' does not occur until the new organism functions as a whole then a decision not to make use of IVF embryos for medical purposes would be a heavy responsibility and not a 'safe' way out.
(2) Church doctrine states that ensoulment occurs at conception.
(3) This paper examines the metaphysical question of 'ensoulment' in relation to the theory, put forward in an earlier paper, that human life begins when the newly formed body organs and systems of the embryo begin to function as an organised whole, at which stage there is evidence of a change of nature.