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Fetal Pain and Partial-Birth Abortion[W]ith respect to the issue of fetal pain,...the weight of scientific evidence is that the fetus feels no pain at this stage." --- Gloria Feldt, President, Planned Parenthood "I make particular reference to a landmark article in 1987 in The New England Journal of Medicine, and their phrase was 'there is no doubt about cortical function and the perception of pain in children of this age...'The anatomical and functional processes responsible for the perception of pain have developed in human fetuses that may be considered for 'partial-birth abortions'...It is likely that the threshold for such pain perception is lower than that of older preterm newborns, full-term newborns and older age groups. Thus the pain experienced during 'partial-birth abortions' by the human fetus would have a much greater intensity than any similar procedures performed in older age groups...This procedure, if it was done on an animal in my institution, would not make it through the institutional review process. The animal would be more protected than the child is." --- Jean Wright, M.D., Medical Director, Egleston Children's Hospital; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Emory University "Over the last twenty years, medical technology and scientific research, by way of ultrasonography, fetoscopy, fetal electrocardiograms, and fetal electroencephalograms, have demonstrated the remarkable responsiveness of the human fetus to pain, touch and sound...The majority of babies aborted by this [partial-birth abortion] procedure are alive and feel pain up until the end of the procedure...How can we support the claim that any infant partially delivered and then brutally killed in this fashion without any anesthesia, does not suffer the pain of this barbaric method of abortion? This is clearly a serious and inaccurate medical misstatement that continues to drive the partial-birth abortion debate...The fact that anesthesia is now routinely used on pre-born children during fetal surgery is an obvious commentary on the unborn child's capacity to feel pain." --- Sheila Carey-Kuzmic, M.D., Pediatrics "It is probable that an 18 to 20 week fetus can feel pain, and easily observed that a 22-24 week premature infant can...Even normal handling may traumatize the delicate skin of very premature infants, and the resulting bruises and abrasions are probably painful. Manipulation to a partial breech delivery by a gloved adult hand probably hurts the fetus before the brain is destroyed...From the viewpoint of a neonatologist, the procedure as described sounds cruel and gruesome, and probably hurts." --- William J. Cashore, M.D., Neonatology, Professor of Pediatrics, Brown University (RI)
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