Study Finds 29-Week Fetuses Probably Feel No Pain and Need No Abortion Anesthesia

NY Times ^ | August 24, 2005 | DENISE GRADY

[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...

[Mike Darancette]

This article is grotesque, the times has has no shame.

[atomicpossum]

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'?

[Sloth]

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

[Mon]

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.....

[HiTech RedNeck]

Is she still curious?

[HiTech RedNeck]

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.

[Cincinna]

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

[Texas Termite]

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

[biblewonk]

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.

[syriacus]

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.

[Fido969]

NARAL?

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

[cinives]

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.

[the invisib1e hand]

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

[RichInOC]

"[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!”

[vrwc0915]

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

[kimmie7]

My son, born at 27 weeks, definitely felt pain...this is just a load of bull to make people feel less ambivalent toward murder.

[SuziQ]

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."

[elbucko]

... 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.

[BaBaStooey]

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

[bonfire]

As always, Twain nails it.