What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I read this at least 10 years ago I think. The book is set in the near future and the existence of the human soul has been demonstrated scientifically. The main characters are a husband and wife with no kids.

The woman had had an abortion and was distressed to find out that the soul appeared in the fetus at 10 weeks (or thereabouts I think). At death, the soul was shown to leave the body and head out into space, but I don't think anyone knew the destination.

I can't remember much else about the book, except that it was discovered that primates like chimps had some kind of soul too. Also, I remember there were a group of people called "immortals" who were biologically enhanced somehow. I think it involved the use of nano machines.

There is some kind of conflict--the nature of which I cannot recall at all--and one of the immortals is badly wounded in the presence of the wife, who realizes his nature when he gets up and walks away after she thought he had been killed. I think he may have had titanium or something protecting his skull.

This sounds like it might be a Robert J. Sawyer book - the first paragraph about soul detection sounded very familiar, and the rest are themes he commonly treats.

Thanks for the suggestion Victoria. He sounds like an interesting author, and I think I'll look into reading some of his books. Unfortunately, I can't find one that fits my memory of the book in question though.

Victoria wrote: "This sounds like it might be a Robert J. Sawyer book - the first paragraph about soul detection sounded very familiar, and the rest are themes he commonly treats."

Yeah, parts of this sound much like Sawyer's The Terminal Experiment The Terminal Experiment (with a bit of Tim Zahn's short story "The Final Report on the Lifeline Experiment")

Yes, thanks Andy it turns out Victoria was right about Sawyer. I had read the blurb about The Terminal Experiment here on Goodreads and it didn't stir any memories. However, after reading a longer summary online I'm sure that's the book. My thanks again to you both.

Excellent. Glad you found your book.