Neonatal doc: 20-week preemies feel pain
There is ample biologic, physiologic, hormonal, and behavioral evidence for fetal and neonatal pain….
[Infants born at 20 weeks and beyond] are the patients that I perform procedures on every day and I can guarantee you that when I put a test tube in and I incubate a patient or put an IV in, they feel it.
~ Dr. Colleen A. Malloy, assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, as quoted by John McCormack in the Weekly Standard, reporting on the effort to ban abortions beyond 20 weeks in Washington, D.C., July 25
[HT: Doug & Jill]
Jul.26, 2012 2:00 am |
Fetal pain |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Even if the studies about fetal pain conflict, wouldn’t a compassionate person be cautious and give the benefit of the doubt to the unborn child? How callous is it to say “you might or might not feel pain, but we don’t care and we’re going to methodically tear you limb-from-limb anyway because taking care of you just isn’t convenient for us right now.”
So hard to believe that this could even be doubted.
Jill L says:
July 26, 2012 at 12:55 pm
So hard to believe that this could even be doubted.
(Denise) I see that little tiny thing in that photograph — that premature baby — and it seems impossible that it could NOT experience pain.
Chris…exactly!!!
I thought we proved this already with Silent Scream, right? I’m embarrassed that we need to keep saying it! Like those dumb studies that “prove” men are different from women!
Yeah, lots of premie docs are willing to speak out on this topic. I have seen it on the really secular science blogs. Someone might post something on fetal development and the premie docs are pretty much opposed to the late term abortions primarily because 90% are healthy moms and babies and there is just no reason to abort that late. They aren’t even anti abortion really. But they recognize human beings when they see them.