Astonishing that Sotomayor is using her own beliefs about science to guide her judgment, since she is simply flat wrong.
There is a huge difference between a spinal reflex, and a brain-determined action. By definition, brain death means no brain-stem responses. The motions of first-trimester fetuses include brain-stem responses from independently regulated heartbeats to full-body repositioning.
Excellent point.
At what stage in pregnancy (how many weeks?) are fetal brain waves detectable? And at what point are they discernibly brain-stem responses?