“The fetus within this time frame of gestation, 20 weeks and beyond,
is fully capable of experiencing pain.”
-Dr. Robert White, Professor of Surgery, Case Western Reserve University
School of Medicine; Director, Division of Neurosurgery and Brain Research
Laboratories, Metro Health Medical Center; Testimony before U.S. House
of Representatives sub-committee on the Constitution on June 15, 1995.
Knowledge of the miraculous and exponential growth in the womb has
advanced remarkably in a few short years. In the 1970s, the then new
field of ultrasonography entranced scientists with a window to the womb.
Now scientists and physicians are able to make sophisticated judgments
and diagnoses of the unborn child’s development, including brain
activity, spinal cord alignment, physical formation, anticipated birth
weight, and even the unborn child’s ability to feel pain through
ultrasounds.
An unborn baby indeed feels pain.
Since the late 1990s, the medical community has confirmed that the unborn
child has the capacity to feel pain at 20 weeks gestation, yet some
specialists surmise that pain can be felt as early as 11 to 13 weeks.
At 20 weeks, the fetal brain has the full complement of brain cells
present in adulthood, able to process pain signals from the body. Electroencephalography
(EEG) even records the electrical activity of the fetal brain experiencing
pain. When an unborn baby undergoes a painful blood extraction as early
as 18 weeks, stress hormones rise in the child in the same manner as
when adults are in pain. At just 16 weeks gestation, an automatic protective
response to pain occurs in the fetal brain.
A recent study reported in April 2006 in the Journal of Neuroscience
reported that premature babies (25 to 45 weeks from conception) do feel
“true” pain. There has long been evidence that premature
babies (and babies in utero) respond to pain, but there has been debate
as to whether they actually feel the pain or simply display a reflex
reaction. Lead researcher Professor Maria Fitzgerald from University
College of London clarifies, “Beforehand, although we could assume
it, we did not know for sure that these babies could feel pain.”
This study measured blood levels and oxygenation in the brain before,
during, and after nurses performed blood tests on these young babies
using a heel lance. The measurements showed “surges of blood and
oxygen in the somatosensory cortex, the part of the brain that processes
sensations from the body’s surface and is linked to feelings of
pain in adults.”
Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act
This study is especially important in the debate over fetal pain. According
to Dr. Paul Ranalli, a neurologist at the University of Toronto, there
is no developmental difference between an unborn baby at 24 weeks and
a premature baby born at the same age. “The only difference is
that the newborn takes in air through his or her lungs rather than through
an umbilical cord.” Recognizing how this information affects children
in utero, National Right to Life and Texas Right to Life have been working
to pass the federal Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, which would require
that abortion providers give women seeking abortions after 20 weeks
post-fertilization (or 22 weeks gestation) basic information on the
substantial evidence that their unborn children may experience pain
during the abortion. The women could then accept or decline anesthesia
for the baby (or other methods to reduce or eliminate such pain).
A national poll conducted by Wirthlin in 2001 showed that 79% of Americans
favor requiring women to receive information about fetal pain prior
to an abortion procedure.
