No Pain Prior to 24 Weeks

This study has interesting implications for the Abortion debate. A (British) government sponsored scientific board concluded that fetuses are incapable of feeling pain prior to 24 weeks of gestation. Their reasoning appears to be impeccable.

I have argued that once a fetal entity can experience pain, it is surely a "someone" who, like all other human "someones," has a right to life. Put another way, the ability to experience pain is a sufficient condition for concluding that the fetus is a “someone” with a right to life. Of course, the ability to feel pain is not a necessary condition for being a someone - and a fetus could be a someone without being able to feel pain. But the pain argument seemed to be the most promising basis for the right to life position regarding early term abortions, and that now appears to be crumbling.

Joe H.