Fetuses cannot feel pain - British study
According to a report published in the British Medical Journal, fetuses are unable to feel pain until they are born, flying in the face of one of the arguments used by the religious right to try and "guilt" women into choosing not to abort. As was front paged only yesterday, Arizona's governor has vetoed a bill that would force doctors to inform women that the fetuses they abort feel pain during the proceedure. As it turns out, not only would that bill have been an unwarranted political intrusion into a private medical decision, it's also untrue.
Anti-abortion groups have consistently used the idea that fetuses feel pain as a way to attack abortion rights, impose waiting periods, and force legislation upon doctors. The rationale for this has been that at 26 weeks the pathways in the brain required to feel pain are in place. Says the doctor filing this report:"Pain is something that comes from our experiences and develops due to stimulation and human interaction.
"It involves concepts such as location, feelings of unpleasantness and having the sensation of pain.
"Pain becomes possible because of a psychological development that begins at birth when the baby is separated from the protected atmosphere of the womb and is stimulated into wakeful activity."
The argument that as the neural pathways required to feel pain are present in a fetus, it must be able to feel pain is the same as saying that as a fetus has lungs, it must be breathing.
The right's obsession with controlling women's reproductive freedoms has again been shown not only to be an affront to individual rights, but also factually nonsense.
Cross posted to Daily Kos.
Anti-abortion groups have consistently used the idea that fetuses feel pain as a way to attack abortion rights, impose waiting periods, and force legislation upon doctors. The rationale for this has been that at 26 weeks the pathways in the brain required to feel pain are in place. Says the doctor filing this report:"Pain is something that comes from our experiences and develops due to stimulation and human interaction.
"It involves concepts such as location, feelings of unpleasantness and having the sensation of pain.
"Pain becomes possible because of a psychological development that begins at birth when the baby is separated from the protected atmosphere of the womb and is stimulated into wakeful activity."
The argument that as the neural pathways required to feel pain are present in a fetus, it must be able to feel pain is the same as saying that as a fetus has lungs, it must be breathing.
The right's obsession with controlling women's reproductive freedoms has again been shown not only to be an affront to individual rights, but also factually nonsense.
Cross posted to Daily Kos.