Fetal pain

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Fetal pain, its existence, and its implications are part of a larger debate about abortion. Though many researchers in the area of fetal development agree a fetus is unlikely to feel pain until after the seventh month of pregnancy, legislation has been proposed by pro-life advocates requiring abortion providers to tell a woman that the fetus may feel pain during an abortion procedure.

Medical studies and reviews

In 2001, a working group of the Medical Research Council (UK) in the United Kingdom called for more research regarding fetal pain. According to the Daily Telegraph, Eve Johnstone, the chair of that working group "makes a strong case for additional research." Ms. Johnstone told the newspaper, "We ought to study this carefully. In 2005 in the United states, a meta-analysis of existing experiments published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) concluded that the limited available evidence indicates fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester, and that electroencephalography suggests the capacity for functional pain perception in premature infants probably does not exist before 29 or 30 weeks; this study asserted that withdrawal reflexes and changes in heart rates and hormone levels in response to invasive procedures are reflexes that do not indicate fetal pain.

Also in 2005, Mellor and colleagues reviewed several lines of evidence that suggested a fetus does not awaken during its time in the womb. If the fetus is asleep throughout gestation then the possibility of fetal pain is greatly minimized.

There is also discussion among researchers about how pain is perceived over-all. Some researchers believe that because pain can involve sensory, emotional and cognitive factors, pain may not be sensed until after birth.

Abortion Debate

United Kingdom

In 2006, an opinion piece by Stuart Derbyshire in the British Medical Journal concluded that pain is dependent upon cognitive and emotional developments that occur after birth:

In 1996, physiologist Peter McCullagh spoke on behalf of a pro-life group to the British Parlament. He said, "At what stage of human prenatal development are those anatomical structures subserving the appreciation of pain present and functional? The balance of evidence at the present time indicates that these structures are present and functional before the tenth week of intrauterine life."

United States

In the 108th Congress, Senator Sam Brownback introduced the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act for the stated purpose of "ensur[ing] that women seeking an abortion are fully informed regarding the pain experienced by their unborn child.", which was read twice and referred to committee. Subsequently 25 states have examined similar legislation related to fetal pain and/or fetal anesthesia. Eight states, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Alaska, South Dakota, and Texas have passed laws which introduced information on fetal pain in their state-issued abortion-counseling literature, which opponents of these laws, such as the Guttmacher Institute, have called "generally irrelevant" and not inline "with the current medical literature". Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said laws such as these "reduce... the process of informed consent to the reading of a fixed script created and mandated by politicians not doctors.

References

External links

• "Oversight Hearing on Pain of the Unborn" from U.S. Congress, House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties (2005). This includes testimony both for and against proposed legislation dealing with fetal pain.
• "Can a embryo or fetus feel pain? Various opinions and studies" from Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. This site states: "We feel that all women considering an abortion should be fully informed and as free as possible from outside pressure."
• Pro-life site presenting case for fetal pain from second month of pregnancy: HTML version
• Statement of National Abortion Federation Opposing H.R. 3442, the "Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act" (2008): PDF version and HTML version
• National Right to Life Committee's webpage of testimonies regarding fetal pain: HTML version

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Last updated on Friday July 25, 2008 at 20:47:12 PDT (GMT -0700)
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