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Women's Health After Abortion
 

Fetal Pain

arrow Royal College of Ob-GYN "Fetal Awareness" Report Does Nothing to
Rebut Conclusion Unborn Can Experience Pain at 20 Weeks
 

Toronto neurologist Paul Ranalli's analysis of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeon's report "Fetal Awareness - Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice," which states that the fetus cannot feel pain before 24 weeks.


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"A Medical Detective Story: What you felt before you were born"
by Dr. Paul Ranalli - PowerPoint presentation    (PDF Version) (Audio)

 

Presentation on fetal pain delivered by Toronto neurologist Dr. Ranalli at a public information meeting hosted by the deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research on Oct.1, 2008 and at CPL's Medical Students Forum, Nov. 22, 2008.
You can hear audio version of this presentation here.


arrow JAMA Fetal Pain Study Seriously Flawed. (August 26, 2005)
 

Canadian Physicians for Life president Dr. Will Johnston criticized a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association in which researchers concluded that a fetus likely does not feel pain before the third trimester, ruling out the need to administer anaesthesia to the fetus during second trimester abortions.

Knowledge of Fetal Development and Fetal Pain Grows over Last 10 Years
  Question: When does a decade seem like 700 years?
Answer: When one considers the evolution of public awareness of life in the womb over the past 10 years.

The Emerging Reality of Fetal Pain in Late Abortion
  The disturbing concept that an unborn child feels pain while being destroyed has once again entered the public conscience in England, when a pro-choice fetal researcher suggested that anesthesia should be given to comfort the fetus from pain from abortions as early as 17 weeks gestation.

arrow Does the Fetus Feel Pain?
 

The fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks. This is probably a conservatively late estimate, but it is scientifically solid. Elements of the pain-conveying system (spino-thalamic system) begin to be assembled at 7 weeks; enough development has occurred by 12-14 weeks that some pain perception is likely, and continues to build through the second trimester. By 20 weeks, the spino- thalamic system is fully established and connected.