If you read the article, he says that the developement of the neurological system is completely developed at 26 weeks. From what I can tell, he is saying that the experience of pained has a learned componant, which does not develope until the infant is born. The learned componant apparently has something to do with interaction with a caregiver.
I don't know enough about it to know whether this makes sense. Hopefully someone at FR with some medical knowledge can analyze this further.
I don't think it really matters one way or the other. It is horrible to think a baby might experience horrible pain during this procedure, but that is secondary to the fact that the baby dies. How could a mother who doesn't want her baby to live, care about how much pain it experiences?
"But to properly experience pain, the mind must also be developed, something which cannot happen until after birth. The mind permits the subjectivity of pain, said the U.K. expert"
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he seems to be defining "pain" in a quirky way, so that, by definition, a baby or fetus can't feel pain.
i think it would be more reasonable to define pain based on neurological criteria. by neurological criteria, a fetus could feel pain by 26 weeks (assuming the info in the article is correct.)
if we accepted this scientist's criteria, we could do an experiment in which we first cut out the area of his brain where the concept of pain is stored (but not cut out the nerves and brain center that underlie the actual sensations). then he could be tortured for the remainder of his life. according to his definition, he would not be able to experience any pain, because he would not have the concept for pain.
i am not suggesting that anyone should do this; i'm just stating the implications of his crazy definition of pain.