Fetal pain study authors unbiased? Please!
Here’s more info on the fetal pain study authors. All are from the University of California, San Francisco:
Susan J. Lee, JD: Lead author, medical student, attorney, once worked for NARAL
Henry J. Peter Ralston, MD: Unbiased? According to a Knight Ridder article yesterday:
UCSF neuroscientist Henry J. Peter Ralston said he hopes the review will help legislators who are “trying to figure out whether we are causing pain at 12 or 13 weeks.”
“The evidence might at least sway their vote,” he said.
Eleanor A. Drey, MD, EdM: Medical director of Women’s Options Center abortion mill (see more below) at UCSF San Francisco General Hospital
Mark A. Rosen, MD, is professor and vice-chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at UCSF. This department oversees the aforementioned Women’s Options Center, where Dr. Drey is director. According to its web site, Women’s Options Center serves as “a major abortion and family planning training center for medical residents and students from UCSF.”
From wire article, today:
A review of medical evidence has found that fetuses likely don’t feel pain until the final months of pregnancy, a powerful challenge to abortion opponents who hope that discussions about fetal pain will make women think twice about ending pregnancies….
However, the seven-page article does not mention that one author is an abortion clinic director, while the lead author – a medical student – once worked for NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion-rights organization.
JAMA Editor in Chief Catherine D. DeAngelis said she was unaware of this and acknowledged it might create an appearance of bias that could hurt the journal’s credibility.
“This is the first I’ve heard about it,” she said. “We ask them to reveal any conflict of interest. I would have published” the disclosure if it had been made.
Eleanor A. Drey, a University of California-San Francisco obstetrician-gynecologist and medical director of the abortion clinic at San Francisco General Hospital, said: “We thought it was critical to include an expert in abortion among the authors. I think my presence … should not serve to politicize a scholarly report.”



A conflict of interest in abortion-related research! Perish the thought!
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