By Zoey Di Mauro
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The fetal nervous system and
brain structures that communicate pain are already in place by the 18th week of
gestation, a neurobiologist from Utah told a congressional hearing May 23.
“There is universal agreement that pain is detected
by the fetus in the first trimester,” although if it is not known if that pain
is experienced in quite the same way as it is in adults, said Maureen Condic,
an associate professor of neurobiology and adjunct professor of pediatrics at
the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City.
She also said that unborn babies are anesthetized
when undergoing fetal surgery because, she explained, doctors have observed
that fetuses do experience pain.
Franks, with several co-sponsors has introduced the Pain Capable Unborn Protection Act to prohibit abortion nationwide after 20 weeks of gestation, approximately the stage at which scientists say unborn babies are capable of feeling pain.
Franks recently reintroduced a measure that would outlaw abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks, and he and a number of other members of Congress want to amend it to make it nationwide. Congress has legislative jurisdiction over the district.
continue reading here
No comments:
Post a Comment