"Most scientists agree that there needs to be a sufficiently developed cerebral cortex in order for pain to be registered as such . The cerebral cortex is not sufficiently developed enough in the fetus to feel pain until roughly the start of the third trimester . Otherwise , the movements of an early fetus or embryo away from a stimulus are simply reflex action . Those of you who might have disected a frog in biology class in High School might have experienced it yourself when seeing the leg of a newly dead frog move under stimulus . For the novice , it may appear to be a reaction to a felt pain but it is not . Here is one link to a comprehensive study on fetal pain made by the American Medical Association : http : //jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/294/8/947"
"GULLIBLE TREATMENT OF TRUMPED UP `` STUDY `` ON FETAL PAIN ISSUE SHOULD EMBARRASS J.A.M.A . AND SOME JOURNALISTS This memo offers a number of points of information regarding the article `` Fetal Pain : A Systematic Multidisciplinary Review of the Evidence , `` published in the August 24 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association ( JAMA ) . Any of the material below , if not otherwise attributed , can be attributed to NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson ( Legfederal @ aol.com ) , who prepared this memorandum . See this here : http : //www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_P ... uttalJAMA.html The following excerpt is from : http : //abort73.com/HTML/I-A-2a-pain.html `` Sir Albert Lilley , widely considered the `` Father of Fetology `` , and unabashedly pro-life ( as anyone with his vast knowledge of fetal development should be ) makes some remarkable statements about fetal pain in an interview he conducted for the book The Tiniest Humans . Question : In the case of an 8- to-10-week fetus , if you apply pressure will it tend to try to get out of the way ? Answer : Normally it would be extremely difficult , apart from putting a foreign instrument or needle into the uterus to apply pressure , but with a fetus at that maturity you have a very small fetus in a larger capsule of fluid . However , as the famous work of Dr. Davenport Hooker shows , in his many thousands of feet of film , babies at this maturity are responsive to touch . The fetus also responds violently to painful stimuli-needle puncture and injection of cold or of hypertonic solutions- stimuli which you and I find painful , children will tell you are painful , and the neonate , to judge from his responses , finds painful . -- - I have been told by advocates of abortion that we have no proof that the fetus actually feels pain . Strictly , they are quite correct . Pain is a peculiarly personal and subjective experience and there is no biochemical or physiological test we can do to tell that anyone is in pain - a phenomenon which makes it very easy to bear other people 's pain stoically , which is an important point for obstetricians to remember . By the same token we lack any proof that animals feel pain . However , to judge from their responses , it seems charitable to assume they do . Were this not so there would be no point in having an organization like the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals , and I for one would be unhappy to think we would withhold from the human fetus a charitable consideration we were prepared to extend to animals . Question : The question , then , of pain felt by the fetus - it is your personal opinion , I gather from what you say in your paper , that in effect the fetus does feel pain ? Answer : I can only say that the fetus responds violently to stimuli that you and I would find painful . Bertrand Russell once remarked that a fisherman had told him that fish had neither sense or sensation , but how he knew that the fisherman would not tell him. `` The following excerpt is from : http : //www.theinterim.com/2000/nov/21fetalpain.html `` Dr . Glover 's research in the area of fetal pain is hardly groundbreaking . Sir Albert W. Liley , the pre-eminent fetologist from New Zealand , had no doubt , on the basis of objective evidence , that the fetus has a capacity to feel pain . In 1963 , Dr. Liley , the founder of fetology , developed the first surgical technique for administering intrauterine blood transfusions to the fetus . According to Liley , the fetus feels pain as early as three months . In offering instructions for carrying out the surgical technique of fetal blood transfusions , he advised his colleagues to take into serious consideration this fact of fetal pain . During the actual surgical procedure , the child must be sedated and given pain-relieving medication . Dr. Margaret Liley , wife and assistant to her husband , and a distinguished fetologist and pediatrician in her own right , remarks in her well-known book , Modern Motherhood : When doctors first began invading the sanctuary of the womb , they did not know that the unborn baby would react to pain in the same fashion as a child would . But they soon learned that he would . By no means a Â ‘ vegetable ' as he has so often been pictured , the unborn knows perfectly well when he has been hurt , and he will protest it just as violently as would a baby in a crib . In referring to aborting a 12-week-old fetus by dilatation and curettage , ( in which the neck of the womb is dilated and the fetus removed in pieces after the womb has been scraped by a sharp instrument called a curette ) , Dr. Eugene Diamond stated in 1971 : `` When this procedure is done , there is little doubt that the fetus , in fact , feels what is done to it. `` In a comprehensive treatment of fetal pain , published in 1985 in the New England Journal of Medicine , Dr. K. Annand , a Harvard physiologist , stated that the fetus first perceives pain as early as 12 weeks . In a May 1975 piece in Atlantic , Willard Gaylin and Marc Lappe argue for fetal experimentation , which they contend is far less traumatic for the unborn than certain forms of abortion . If society allows a child in the womb to be subjected to `` unimaginable acts of violence , `` they write , such as `` dismemberment , salt-induced osmotic shock , or surgical extirpation , `` how can it balk at fetal experimentation , most forms of which are incomparably more benign . Fetal pain , of course , is a matter of fact , not ideology . Science , of course , should be based on fact , not political correctness . We live in a Therapeutic Culture in which popping pills has become a national pastime . We are only too sensitive about pain , inconvenience , and possibly offending someone . Yet our own ultra-sensitivity to pain does not , in general , extend to the unborn . Are we inconsistent in our war against pain ? Is there a blatant contradiction that runs through the very heart of our Therapeutic Culture ? The answer to this apparent dilemma lies in the fact that there are different levels of pain . Pain exists on a spiritual as well as on a physical level . Of the two , as many psychologists and psychiatrists have averred , the spiritual kind is more difficult to bear . The difference between the two is akin to the difference between pain and suffering . The suffering in one 's soul that can arise from humiliation , guilt , despair , and terror , are formidable . An athlete would rather risk breaking his neck driving for a fly ball than feel the humiliation of being called a wimp . A soldier would rather risk injury and even death , than suffer the shame of dishonor . A Christian would rather mortify himself than experience the disgrace that comes with mortal sin . Defeat , dishonor , disgrace , as a rule , are far more devastating than physical pain . There is a pain that goes with being egregiously wrong ( shame ) or being recklessly immoral ( disgrace ) or being purposely obtuse ( humiliation ) that is more acute than physical pain . Our Therapeutic Culture is not inconsistent . Those who promote abortion want to spare themselves the pain that goes with suffering shame , disgrace , and humiliation . Because of that , they are willing to deny the pain that the aborted baby feels . To acknowledge what abortion really means is too painful for them . They would rather retreat into the presumed security of their comforting ideology . Pain and birth go together in a mysterious way , like death and life , fall and redemption . The birth of a child or the rebirth of an adult requires a certain amount of pain . Birth and redemption both demand pain . Abortion was instituted in an attempt to avoid pain . But it has magnified the very thing it had sought to reduce . We are drowning in a sea of tranquilizers while we increase our suffering . We thought we could eliminate physical suffering , but brought about spiritual torment . The abortion issue , like an ellipse , has two foci : one is the birth of the child ( which is accompanied by pain ) ; the other , the rebirth of the pro-abortionist ( which is accompanied by suffering ) . Part of the painful truth about the abortion issue is that it includes both the unborn and the unrepentant. `` Dr. DeMarco is a professor of philosophy at St. Jerome 's University in Waterloo , Ont ."
"Otherwise , the movements of an early fetus or embryo away from a stimulus are simply reflex action"
"We thought we could eliminate physical suffering , but brought about spiritual torment ."