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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: NormsRevenge
This article is grotesque, the times has has no shame.
81 posted on 08/24/2005 6:54:30 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Mesocons for Rice '08)
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To: neverdem; All

So, show of hands: Who thinks this was just a tactic by pro-abortion groups to be able to say 'See, JAMA says that they don't feel pain'?


82 posted on 08/24/2005 6:57:29 PM PDT by atomicpossum (Replies should be as pedantic as possible. I love that so much.)
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To: neverdem

Because of course, it's fine to murder anyone who can't feel pain.


83 posted on 08/24/2005 6:59:53 PM PDT by Sloth (Archaeologists test for intelligent design all the time.)
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To: Utmost Certainty; Thombo2
I was born 2 months premature. Hmm. Kind of unsettling.

So were my twin nieces, 2lbs and 3lbs birth weight. Absolutely normal, were breathing on their own. Now almost 20 years old, one of them is almost 6 feet tall. This is just sick to think somebody would abort that late.....
84 posted on 08/24/2005 7:00:54 PM PDT by Mon
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To: cinives

Is she still curious?


85 posted on 08/25/2005 12:10:23 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church! [Ann Coulter])
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To: Mon

If it could be born, it should be born, not killed. Abortion about "reproductive freedom"? Pshaw, she's already reproduced by that point. This is about killing.


86 posted on 08/25/2005 12:12:10 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church! [Ann Coulter])
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To: neverdem

What they don't reveal is that the authors of this report have strong ties to NARAL and other pro-abortion organizations.


87 posted on 08/25/2005 12:28:20 AM PDT by Cincinna (BEWARE HILLARY and her HINO & SLICK and his WINO)
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To: DLfromthedesert

You're sooooooooooo right DL !! When Logan was in NICU and different procedures were done on him, it was VERY evident that it hurt him. And they figure he was between 24-25 weeks when he was born.

A$$-holes that write something like that to further their cause is what that is all about!

Nana


88 posted on 08/25/2005 2:20:48 AM PDT by Texas Termite (Please pray for Texas Cowboy & Simcha7)
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To: newgeezer
Un-effing-believeable ping.

What a disgusting study. This is right there with a NAMBLA piece describing how do properly molest a 6 year old at camp.

89 posted on 08/25/2005 4:51:07 AM PDT by biblewonk (A house of cards built on Matt 16:18)
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To: neverdem
AMA 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.

Lying, thy name is pro-abort.

The systematic lying of the pro-abort left is what caused me to leave the Democratic party. The moment I saw them in action during the Clarence Thomas hearings I could no longer remain a liberal.

All along, from the era of Roe v. Wade until today, the pro-aborts have lied when they to further their argument.

90 posted on 08/25/2005 5:13:07 AM PDT by syriacus (Cindy's campaign was interrupted by a bad event. But the Iraq campaign is supposed to go perfectly)
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To: imskylark



NARAL?

Now there's a group that cares a lot about the truth.


91 posted on 08/25/2005 5:40:49 AM PDT by Fido969 ("And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Funny you shold ask. Yes, she is, so much so that I had to start homeschooling her in the 6th grade. Her teachers thru most of her short school career didn't appreciate all the "why ?" questions, and kept trying to refer her for special ed as having OD and ADHD !

Now she doesn't just ask, she has the time to find out for herself. It's just fun. We shold have started homeschooling much, much sooner.


92 posted on 08/25/2005 6:34:13 AM PDT by cinives (On some planets what I do is considered normal.)
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To: neverdem

The "study" is wrong. See the "Silent Scream." How utterly f*cking barbaric. Does an "academic" feel pain when drawn and quartered?


93 posted on 08/25/2005 6:36:23 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (see my FR page for a link to the tribute to Terri Schaivo, a short video presentation.)
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To: neverdem

"[Whew!]...It is really hot down here! [fweet!] Mom! MOM! You’re not wolfin’ down jalapeños again, are ya?! Yeah, 'cuz lemme tell ya ’bout my friend Ned...his mama ate nothin’ but spicy foods? Homeboy came out red, Ma! Bright red! So if you keep crammin’ those peppers down your neck, I might just bust out of here early...grab somethin’ on the way out, take it with me!”


94 posted on 08/25/2005 6:38:29 AM PDT by RichInOC (...one of my favorite TV commercials EVER.)
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To: RichInOC; All
New study proposed:
Do the quote doctors that murder for a living feel pain when fed feet first into a mulcher?

The lengths that the industry of death will go have no end
95 posted on 08/25/2005 7:31:57 AM PDT by vrwc0915
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To: neverdem
My son, born at 27 weeks, definitely felt pain...this is just a load of bull to make people feel less ambivalent toward murder.
96 posted on 08/25/2005 8:25:14 AM PDT by kimmie7 (As of August 23, I've been smoke free 6 MONTHS!)
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To: bonfire
WHenever I see a news article that says "study finds" I am immediately suspicious.

I believe it was Mark Twain who said, "There's lies, there's damn lies, and then there's STATISTICS."

97 posted on 08/25/2005 8:28:29 AM PDT by SuziQ
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To: neverdem
... a team of doctors has concluded....

There are phrases, in this life, that are meant to convey knowledge, authority or wisdom when there really isn't anything but opinion. This is one of those abuses of language.

98 posted on 08/25/2005 8:47:06 AM PDT by elbucko
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To: neverdem

Are these the same people who said that Terri was feeling "euphoria" due to her starvation and wasn't feeling any pain?


99 posted on 08/25/2005 8:48:30 AM PDT by BaBaStooey (Ethiopia: The New Happiest Place on Earth.)
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To: SuziQ

As always, Twain nails it.


100 posted on 08/25/2005 11:04:35 AM PDT by bonfire (dwindler)
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