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The issue of when a fetus can feel pain is a highly divisive and keenly debated one when considering the effects of abortion on the fetus. While scientists have acknowledged that a foetus can indeed feel physical pain, professional opinion is still divided as to when the foetus has the necessary sensory perception to experience pain. Several academics, usually those supporting abortion, contend that only once connections to the cerebral cortex are made can the fetus experience pain; this usually occurs during the third trimester of the pregnancy, when only 1% of abortions are carried out. Other scientists, who mainly hold pro-life convictions, argue that a fetus can feel pain as early as 7 weeks, during the first trimester. The personal bias of many researchers is believed to influence their analysis of any experiments they undertake into the phenomenon. The topic has also been hotly debated by many politicians of both persuasions.
Pain in an adult, child, newborn or late-term fetus originates as an electrical impulse in a body's pain receptors. This signal is sent via nerve pathways to the spinal column, and then to the thalamus - a part of the brain that relays signals from the peripheral nervous system to the cerebral cortex, where it is sensed as pain.
In a fetus, pain receptors develop around 7 weeks after conception; the spino-thalamic system at about 13 weeks. However, the connections to the cortex are established only after about 26 weeks into pregnancy. Most pro-life advocates believe that pain can be felt by the fetus when these systems are only partly formed. Most pro-choice advocates believe that only once all the connections between the receptors and brain can pain be felt - i.e. sometime after about 26 weeks into pregnancy.
In 1997, Dr. Robert White, director of the Division of Neurosurgery and Brain Research Laboratory at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, gave testimony before the House Constitution Subcommittee of the Congress of the United States. He stated that, at 20 weeks' gestation, the fetus "is fully capable of experiencing pain...Without question, all of this is a dreadfully painful experience for any infant subjected to such a surgical procedure."
His assertions were supported by Dr. Paul Ranalli, a neurologist at the University of Toronto, who has cited several observations to support the belief that a fetus can experience pain. These include observing a fetus "withdraw from painful stimulation", and the fact that stress hormones detected in adults observing pain has also been found in the blood samples of aborted fetuses.
In 2001, a working group appointed by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in the United Kingdom contradicted these findings, stating that "little sensory input" reaches the brain of the developing fetus before 26 weeks. "Therefore reactions to noxious stimuli cannot be interpreted as feeling or perceiving pain."
In 2005, a meta-analysis of existing experiments concluded that the lack of functioning neurological pathways to a fetus' cererbral cortex before 26 weeks meant that it could not experience pain before then. The meta-study was criticised by pro-life groups who were suspicious of the prior involvement of several authors of the report. One directs an abortion clinic at San Francisco Hospital, while the lead author undertook legal work with NARAL, an pro-choice group for six months.
Given the lack of irrefutable evidence, women will have to rely on their own convictions and conscience when choosing whether or not to abort their pregnancy.