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Study Finds 29-Week Fetuses Probably Feel No Pain and Need No Abortion Anesthesia
NY Times ^ | August 24, 2005 | DENISE GRADY

Posted on 08/24/2005 2:35:39 PM PDT by neverdem

Taking on one of the most highly charged questions in the abortion debate, a team of doctors has concluded that fetuses probably cannot feel pain in the first six months of gestation and therefore do not need anesthesia during abortions.

Their report, being published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is based on a review of several hundred scientific papers, and it says that nerve connections in the brain are unlikely to have developed enough for the fetus to feel pain before 29 weeks.

The finding poses a direct challenge to proposed federal and state laws that would compel doctors to tell women having abortions at 20 weeks or later that their fetuses can feel pain and to offer them anesthesia specifically for the fetus.

About 1.3 million abortions a year are performed in the United States, 1.4 percent of them at 21 weeks or later.

Bills requiring that women be warned about fetal pain have been introduced in the House and Senate and in 19 states, and recently passed in Georgia, Arkansas and Minnesota. The bills are supported by many anti-abortion groups. But advocates for abortion rights say the real purpose of the measures is to discourage women from seeking abortions. It is too soon to tell what effect the new laws are having in abortion clinics.

The finding was considered persuasive by many scientists but is unlikely to settle the controversy. Most scientists agree that fetuses probably do not feel pain in the first trimester, but there remains wide disagreement over when, in later pregnancy, the fetal brain is sufficiently developed for pain to register. Some think that, with the current state of knowledge, it is impossible to know for sure. In Britain, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said that fetuses probably...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: Kansas
KEYWORDS: abortion; babies; cultofdeath; cultureofdeath; damnedlies; fetalpain; obstetrics; pain; pregnancy; prenataldevelopment; silentscream
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To: neverdem

Jon & Will, 28 weeks gestation, 2 days out of the womb. I've been there, I know. They didn't see the boys recoil from touch at that young age. ANY PHYSICAL SENSATION is painful to them at this point-- much LESS BEING VIVISECTED BY AN ABORTIONIST!

21 posted on 08/24/2005 2:48:11 PM PDT by atomicpossum (Replies should be as pedantic as possible. I love that so much.)
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To: neverdem

All this does is try to dehumanize babies in utero. I remember when I was younger and they used to call 1st trimester babies "tadpoles". Then, advanced ultrasound techniques came along and caused the end of "tadpole" language.


22 posted on 08/24/2005 2:49:05 PM PDT by Aggie Mama
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To: MeanWestTexan

My niece was born almost 4 months premature. She could fit in my hand. It sure looked to me like she enjoyed those IV needles being jammed into her tiny body while she screamed bloody murder. She's 24 now and a grade school teacher. These people make me physically ill.


23 posted on 08/24/2005 2:50:44 PM PDT by eddiemunster
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To: eddiemunster

Pet scans show brain activity at 19 weeks in the uk. What BS junk science.


24 posted on 08/24/2005 2:51:14 PM PDT by fooman (Get real with Kim Jung Mentally Ill about proliferation)
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To: mpackard

That is powerful... I've always thought that, in some way, there will be a retribution from God for the lax attitude America seems to have toward abortion. I don't mean to sound wacky, but it just seems like the kind of thing that reaches Biblical status. Anyone else ever think that?


25 posted on 08/24/2005 2:51:23 PM PDT by The Worthless Miracle
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To: neverdem

16 years ago, while 14 weeks pregnant with my daughter, I had an amniocentesis. An ultrasound was showing the entire event. We saw the needle go in to take the fluid, and then something very extraordinary (to us all) occurred; my daughter's not quite fully-formed hand floated into the picture, patted the needle several times, touched the tip, and withdrew very quickly (as tho she had felt some pain from the tip) and then came very slowly back into view to touch the shaft of the needle one more time, before finally disappearing from the ultrasound picture.

No one will ever convince me, after seeing that, that very young fetus' have no awareness, cannot feel pain, or the like. The doctor was amazed.


26 posted on 08/24/2005 2:53:24 PM PDT by cinives (On some planets what I do is considered normal.)
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To: Aggie Mama
All this does is try to dehumanize babies in utero.

You got it mama. The more they can dehumanize the baby, the less their guilt is and the more they can rationalize killing a human being without just cause.

No doubt these "researchers" are evolutionists, for they most certainly are no higher than the other animals.

27 posted on 08/24/2005 2:55:21 PM PDT by Mister_Diddy_Wa_Diddy
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To: fooman

Several months ago I heard about an ultrasound that showed a baby sucking it's thumb at about 8 weeks. Gee whiz-didn't hear much in the media about that-so much for referring to it as just a "fetus"...


28 posted on 08/24/2005 2:55:33 PM PDT by eddiemunster
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To: neverdem

I may going to get flamed for this - but JAMA has turned out to be a political mouthpiece for the feminists. They have, in the past, published misleading "findings" that where the sole purpose was to support the feminist dogma.

JAMA claims do not do well when held to scrutiny.


29 posted on 08/24/2005 2:55:35 PM PDT by Fido969 ("And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).)
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To: neverdem
I was reading something about this today in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and it said that one of the authors involved in this project were involved with NARAL and were pro-abortion activists. There was also another person involved with such connections, but I can't recall their role in this off the top of my head.

This is nothing more than politicized "science".

30 posted on 08/24/2005 2:56:27 PM PDT by SunnyD1182
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To: NormsRevenge

Yes, and all life "probably" descended from a primordial soup which had just the right ingredients.


31 posted on 08/24/2005 2:56:49 PM PDT by RightFighter
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To: neverdem

Ghouls.


32 posted on 08/24/2005 2:57:11 PM PDT by Skooz ("Political Correctness is the handmaiden of terrorism" - Michelle Malkin)
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To: biblewonk

Un-effing-believeable ping.


33 posted on 08/24/2005 2:57:50 PM PDT by newgeezer (Just my opinion, of course. Your mileage may vary.)
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To: The Worthless Miracle
That is powerful... I've always thought that, in some way, there will be a retribution from God for the lax attitude America seems to have toward abortion. I don't mean to sound wacky, but it just seems like the kind of thing that reaches Biblical status. Anyone else ever think that?

I have often wondered why God has not lowered the boom on America for it's shedding of so much innocent blood, something the Lord hates very much.

The only thing I can come up with is that there is a remnant of the Church here, and in His Mercy and Grace is restraining His Wrath against this nation for the abomination of infanticide.

34 posted on 08/24/2005 2:57:59 PM PDT by Mister_Diddy_Wa_Diddy
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To: neverdem
That great left wing scientific certainty of "PROBABLY"
And they won't teach intelligent design because it can't be proved!!
35 posted on 08/24/2005 2:58:09 PM PDT by msnimje
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To: neverdem

They must have got this story wrong. It is the abortion doctors who feel no pain.


36 posted on 08/24/2005 2:58:35 PM PDT by taxesareforever (Government is running amuck)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

LOL.. Heck, I took it out of the title (/Joe Biden)

Next time a doctor asks ya to bend over, tell 'em, After You. :)


37 posted on 08/24/2005 2:58:52 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... "To remain silent when they should protest makes cowards of men." -- THOMAS JEFFERSON)
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To: livius

"I recently read an article in the mainstream press where "Mom" was concerned that her son (she even knew the sex) would feel pain - however, she seemed completely at ease with the idea of killing him."

To these cold-blooded murderers:
Killing a baby and inflicting pain = bad
Killing a baby and telling yourself it was painless = good


38 posted on 08/24/2005 2:59:16 PM PDT by LibSnubber (liberal democrats are domestic terrorists)
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To: NormsRevenge

"probably", isn't a sure thing. I sure wouldn't want to be that baby. The number of abortions is staggering. I just don't understand how these people and women live with themselves.


39 posted on 08/24/2005 2:59:55 PM PDT by newfrpr04
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To: SunnyD1182; All
Here's the column I referenced earlier that I found in the Philadelphia Inquirer today:

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/health/12458029.htm

Fetal-pain study omits an abortion-rights link Scientists weigh in on planned legislation. By Marie McCullough Inquirer Staff Writer Is a fetus capable of feeling pain, and if so, should fetal pain be treated during an abortion?

In today's Journal of the American Medical Association, five researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, review nearly 2,000 studies on the hotly debated questions. They conclude that legislative proposals to allow fetal pain relief during abortion are not justified by scientific evidence.

But their seven-page article has a weakness: It does not mention that one author is an abortion clinic director, while the lead author - Susan J. Lee, a medical student - once worked for NARAL Pro-Choice America.

JAMA editor-in-chief Catherine D. DeAngelis said she was unaware of this, and acknowledged it might create an appearance of bias that could hurt the journal's credibility. "This is the first I've heard about it," she said. "We ask them to reveal any conflict of interest. I would have published" the disclosure if it had been made.

40 posted on 08/24/2005 3:00:02 PM PDT by SunnyD1182
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