Fetal Pain: What is the Scientific Evidence?
… Many have questioned whether pain exists for neurologically immature human beings
… Some argue that for pain to be experienced it requires two components, a sensory and an emotional/conscious component
… Such markers are demonstrated in an increasing body of scientific research and include stress and withdrawal responses as well as measurable physiologic changes
… Until the late 1980’s surgical procedures with neonates were mostly performed without anesthesia
… showed that the fetal elevations were not due to increased maternal stress hormone levels
… How can conscious awareness be adequately defined?
… Are we to perform abdominal surgery without anesthesia on patients with Alzheimer’s Disease?
… It is unethical to intentionally harm an innocent human being irrespective of the individual’s ability to perceive pain
… Medicine’s double standard of acknowledging pain capability in wanted premature babies while denying it in unwanted unborn babies of the same gestational age is unconscionable
