Evidence that foetuses can feel pain is scientifically unsound and may be putting women considering an abortion at risk, a senior psychologist has said.
In an analysis published in the British Medical Journal, Dr Stuart Derbyshire, from the University of Birmingham, examined the neurological and psychological evidence surrounding foetal pain.
He found that the neurological processes needed to feel pain are developed by 26 weeks gestation, but that for pain to be registered and experienced, the mind needs to be able to accommodate the subjectivity of pain.
Such development only occurs outside the womb, through the baby's actions and his or her relationship with people providing care, he argued. As a result, Dr Derbyshire concluded, foetuses cannot experience pain.
His analysis comes as the US government considers whether to bring in a law that would force doctors to tell women seeking an abortion that there is "substantial evidence" that the procedure will cause an unborn child pain.
The law would also state that a foetus older than 22 weeks should be given pain-reducing drugs before an abortion.
Dr Derbyshire argued that such an approach would increase risks to the woman, increase costs, undermine the interests of the women "and are unnecessary for foetuses who have not yet reached a developmental stage that would support the conscious experience of pain".
He added that "an absence of pain in the foetus does not resolve the question of whether abortion is morally acceptable or should be legal". But he said: "Avoiding a discussion of foetal pain with women requesting abortions is not misguided paternalism but a sound policy based on good evidence that foetuses cannot experience pain."
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In an analysis published in the British Medical Journal, Dr Stuart Derbyshire, from the University of Birmingham, examined the neurological and psychological evidence surrounding foetal pain.
He found that the neurological processes needed to feel pain are developed by 26 weeks gestation, but that for pain to be registered and experienced, the mind needs to be able to accommodate the subjectivity of pain.
Such development only occurs outside the womb, through the baby's actions and his or her relationship with people providing care, he argued. As a result, Dr Derbyshire concluded, foetuses cannot experience pain.
His analysis comes as the US government considers whether to bring in a law that would force doctors to tell women seeking an abortion that there is "substantial evidence" that the procedure will cause an unborn child pain.
The law would also state that a foetus older than 22 weeks should be given pain-reducing drugs before an abortion.
Dr Derbyshire argued that such an approach would increase risks to the woman, increase costs, undermine the interests of the women "and are unnecessary for foetuses who have not yet reached a developmental stage that would support the conscious experience of pain".
He added that "an absence of pain in the foetus does not resolve the question of whether abortion is morally acceptable or should be legal". But he said: "Avoiding a discussion of foetal pain with women requesting abortions is not misguided paternalism but a sound policy based on good evidence that foetuses cannot experience pain."
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