Foetuses 'no pain up to 29 weeks'

[Orangutan]

From

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4180592.stm

It looks like it's time for the abortion debates to start again.

O.

[athon]

It makes for an interesting argument. Surely pain doesn't require higher order cognition, or even the interaction of a complicated cortex to be recognized.

I guess it depends on how you define pain. The sensation works only if it is a) acknowledged as being unpleasant (therefore remembered for future reference), and then b) prompts a behaviour that might be conducive to reducing the cause of the pain. The 'unpleasant' part is something we can describe, as cognitive animals, and is almost an anthropomorphic description. But the ellicitation of avoidance behaviour is something recognized in animals that lack anything like our brain structures.

Athon

[BillHoyt]

Ah, and I see the pro-life contingent has already started with the apologetics! Incredible, but so sorry, we all REMEMBER all your freakin' scare campaigns, guys and gals! jumping je***s.

[CplFerro]

If they're that interested, in countries where abortion is legal, I don't understand why they don't do empirical tests. Send up a fibre-optic camera and some pins and knives and things to observe the organism's response to being punctured, cut, and so on. I'm sure they could find some woman to pay for the privilege.