Looks like fetuses may not feel pain after all

Send this to every forced birther you know.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=9001683

I have never accepted the garbage the anti-abortion crowd spews about fetuses feeling pain.

But I do express some of the same scepticism as the woman in the article. I have had three children. I always thought my children-to-be responded to touch and sound while I was pregnant.

It will be interesting to see what further research suggests.

I see this with my infant niece and toddler nephew all the time. They move when we pick them up while they're sleeping, but they don't experience the touch.

I've also seen comatose patients respond to touch while their EEGs say they're not experiencing anything. If the brain isn't processing information, it can't be said to be experienced.

Pcat

to the anti-choice crowd, ey? They are going to spin around that and find ways to not believe it as possible or discredit the results.

It stands to reason that projecting backwards, (from our adult state) can be a form of emotional and psychological projection. Too bad that projections colors enough people's points-of-view to make it a confused, legal issue out in the limelight.

Looking into the Greed concept of Nous, and the Creation in Genesis, I have ascertained that life begins with the first breath. The tradition of the "birthday" supports that.

And before I sound heartless about the fetus, I do have respect for a potential human life and empathy for those who have to make thoughtful choices about the continuation of said. It is personal and even sacred to the potential parent. It is not a light or flippant thing.

It's also so plainly stated. I'm excited. I feel like sharing it with the people around me in the room, but I'm shying off. Yikes. This type of stuff even makes most pro-choicers sensitive.

I really think the focus needs to be put back on to the living berathing feeling conscious woman rather than the fetus - we don't know and possibly will never know what a fetus "feels"

I know it's a PR war (for want of a better term) but continuously responding to the fetus police just means they continue to get to frame the debate on their terms.

We should be asking them why they think the feelings of women like Gerri Santoro and those that loved her mean nothing.

I agree that the life of the mother is clearly more important that the life of the zygote/embryo/foetus/baby, even after birth, but those aren't the stakes - being forced to give birth is bad, but not as bad as dying.

I support early-term and mid-term abortion because I believe that until the foetus is self-aware it is not a person, and therefore killing it doesn't matter, but I believe that once it is demonstrably self-aware it should probably only be aborted in exceptional cases (health of the mother at risk, inviability or arguably rape/incest).

it isn't demonstrably self-aware. If you really think late term abortions are "killing" why would you be OK with it in the case of rape, is it OK to "kill" someone because of the crimes of one of their biological parents?

As for how bad being forced to give birth would be given that you'll never be in a position to say I'll take your opinion on it with a grain of salt.

And though it makes sense to me, I think the jury's still our on whether the fetus experiences pain as we know it.

is that the sperm can "feel." Then, they'll ban masturbation.

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