[Vision2020] Another Anti-Abortion Reason Down the Drain

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Greetings:

Thanks to Chasuk for posting the link to the article below.  I had seen similar studies and conclusions before.  

Animal Rights philosophers have always charged those who support value of persons as a form of specieism, but, as I have shown, there are some persons who do not belong to the human species.  Nevertheless, these people do have a point: why should significant mental life be the sole criteria for a being's value?

The humane treatment of animals was one of the great achievements of 19th Century reformers influenced by utilitarianism.  One of the results of the passing the first laws protecting animals from unnecessary pain was that English politicians then realized that they were inflicting unnecessary pain on child workers!  What a sad irony: the working age for human beings was raised because of legislation designed to protect animals.

If we say that we now should protect all lives that experience pain, then I, and all the other vegetarians, are completely OK with this, but of course such laws would not pass for the indefinite future.  Now we have good evidence that fetuses don't feel pain until the same period as their significant mental lives begin, so the cut-off point is still the same and current laws are morally and legally sound.

Nick Gier

Fetuses Can't Feel Pain, Expert Says in British Medical Journal
>From Bloomberg.com

April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Fetuses can't feel pain, according to a commentary by a psychologist in tomorrow's issue of the British Medical Journal, which suggests doctors won't need to sedate an unborn child before conducting an abortion.

The nerve connections necessary for processing pain aren't complete before 26 weeks' gestation, said Stuart Derbyshire, a senior psychologist at the University of Birmingham in England. Using painkillers before that stage is scientifically unsound and may put women at unnecessary risk, he found in a clinical review.

``The absence of pain in the fetus doesn't resolve the morality of abortion, but does argue against legal and clinical efforts to prevent such pain during an abortion,'' Derbyshire said. ``A mandate to provide pain relief before an abortion may expose women to inappropriate interventions, risks and distress.''

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, according to the International Association for the Study of Pain. It's a conscious experience, not only a response to stimuli.

As pain is subjective, each individual uses the word differently based on his or her experience related to injury earlier in life. The limited neural system of fetuses can't support such cognitive, affective and evaluative experiences, Derbyshire said.

Derbyshire examined neurological and psychological evidence to support a concept of fetal pain, which is the basis for proposed U.S. legislation that requires tranquilizing a fetus of more than 22 weeks before an abortion. Fetuses are capable of responding to pain stimuli, though they don't feel it, he said.

The unborn baby also needs to develop its mind in addition to its brain to accommodate the subjectivity of pain, Derbyshire said. Development of the mind occurs after birth through the infant's actions and interactions with its parents necessary to the development of pain experience, he said.