Posted on 05/13/2015 11:03:05 PM PDT by kathsua
This week, the House of Representatives is voting on a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The last time the House considered this bill, an expert on human embryonic development informed members of the committee that unborn babies have the capacity to feel pain as early as 8 weeks.
Maureen Condic, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah and obtained her Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley. She is a widely-published scientist whose works have appeared in a wide variety of peer-reviewed journals.
“The earliest “rudiment” of the human nervous system forms by 28 days (four weeks) after sperm – egg fusion. At this stage, the primitive brain is already “patterned”; i.e. cells in different regions are specified to produce structures appropriate to their location in the nervous system as a whole,” she told lawmakers during the hearing on the bill in may 2013.
Dr. Condic explained, “Over the next several weeks, the brain will grow enormously and generate many complex connections, but the overall organization of the nervous system is established by four weeks. This is significant because it shows that even at this early stage, the brain is not anything like a mere collection of cells or a “blank slate” to be written upon by later developmental processes. Like all embryonic organs, the structure of the early brain “anticipates” the function of the mature system.”
When it comes to pain specifically, scientific evidence is very clear that pain can be experienced by 20 weeks of pregnancy. But Condic said unborn children have a capacity to feel pain much earlier.
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“The neural circuitry responsible for the most primitive response to pain, the spinal reflex, is in place by 8 weeks of development,” she explained. “This is the earliest point at which the fetus experiences pain in any capacity.”
At that point, the scientist confirmed “a fetus responds just as humans at later stages of development respond; by with withdrawing from the painful stimulus.”
By 8-10 weeks, Dr. Condic says many of the neural connections are formed.
“This indicates that the brain is “wiring” itself in the first trimester, well before reaching the fetal stage of life. Early establishment of connections between neurons further indicates that brain formation is an active process of progressively building the structures and relationships required for mature brain function,” she confirmed.
“To experience pain, a noxious stimulus must be detected. The neural structures necessary to detect noxious stimuli are in place by 8-10 weeks of human development,” the researcher continued. “There is universal agreement that pain is detected by the fetus in the first trimester. The debate concerns how pain is experienced ; i.e., whether a fetus has the same pain experience a newborn or an adult would have. While every individual’s experience of pain is personal, a number of scientific observations address what brain structures are necessary for a mental or psychological experience of pain.”
Knowing the unborn child feels pain early in pregnancy, Condic says the question is what to do then.
“Imposing pain on any pain-capable living creature is cruelty. And ignoring the pain experienced by another human individual for any reason is barbaric. We don’t need to know if a human fetus is self- reflective or even self- aware to afford it the same consideration we currently afford other pain – capable species. We simply have to decide whether we will choose to ignore the pain of the fetus or not,” she concludes.
Read Dr. Condic’s full testimony at http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/113th/05232013/Condic%2005232013.pdf
States should require anesthesia, like when they execute criminals.
Because it's a human being from its first moment to its last.
None of the socialists there care. At best they will say the “fetus” (latin for unborn child), should be (and they will say should instead of demand it) given painkillers before the killers, kill them.
THe RINOs don’t care. The liberal repubs don’t care. Conservatives care but nobody’s out there making this a big issue. If none are going to fight against Obamacare none are going to fight for this.
High School biology:
1. Living Things are Composed of Cells
2. Living Things Have Different levels of cellular organization
3. Living Things Use Energy
4. Living Things Respond To Their Environment
5. Living Things Grow
6. Living Things Reproduce
7. Living Things Adapt To Their Environment
Instead of a fetus, we need to start calling these babies “transgendered”. Then they’ll all be safe.
Today happens to be a holiday (Ascension Day) and Father’s Day.
There are all kinds of goodies waiting for me, after we have prayer.
I am celebrating Daughter’s Day.
Yes it is. And this IS a winning issue for republicans, and, although I wouldn't vote for him, Paul made one of the best moves of the election so far when he threw the abortion debate right back at that horrifying creature Wassermann.
The baby killers are the abortionists.
The women that I know that have had abortions suffer terribly afterwords and for many years and that gives me no joy. They are in many cases making a frightened and uninformed decision at the time, with angels of darkness edging them on.
Imagine if a republican could quote those with fame who have said they regretted having an abortion, even Nikki Minaj, who all the young people know. I fear they will retreat on this issue again, and it never makes sense. The 20 week issue is a Winner. And it will save lives.
So it’s legitimate to kill as long as there’s no pain?
...”So it’s legitimate to kill as long as there’s no pain?”...
Or, if the horror of the crime is hidden from everyone but the criminal. Our society is dumbed down and numbed down. The holocaust involving babies will expand and if not stopped will spread to anyone inconvenient and especially those who refuse to compromise with the perpetrators of human destruction.
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