Fetal Pain cont It seems that the info in this article s Fetal Pain section is different from the information on the Fetal Pain page I propose changing our section to reflect what is on the fetal pain page The following is taken from the fetal pain page directly though edited for summary form Fetal pain its existence and its implications are debated politically and academically particularly in regards to the abortion debate A 2005 American study conducted by neurobiologists and pediatricians concluded that fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester Little or no evidence addresses the effectiveness of direct fetal anesthetic or analgesic techniques Fetal Pain A Systematic Multidisciplinary Review of the Evidence JAMA 2005 294 947 954 Susan J Lee JD Henry J Peter Ralston MD Eleanor A Drey MD EdM John Colin Partridge MD MPH Mark A Rosen MD With the encouragement of President Ronald Reagan in 1984 a small group of physicians argued that the ability of a fetus to feel pain appears as early as seven weeks after conception Robinson B A 2006 Can a fetus feel pain Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance Retrieved December 14 2005 Most medical researchers agree pain can not be felt until the third trimester of pregnancy or until after birth Study Fetus feels no pain until third trimester MSNBC There may be an emerging consensus among developmental neurobiologists that the establishment of thalamocortical connections at about 26 weeks is a critical event with regard to fetal perception of pain Nevertheless because pain can involve sensory emotional and cognitive factors it is impossible to know when painful experiences may become possible even if it is known when thalamocortical connections are established Johnson Martin and Everitt Barry Essential reproduction Blackwell 2000 The multidimensionality of pain perception involving sensory emotional and cognitive factors may in itself be the basis of conscious painful experience but it will remain difficult to attribute this to a fetus at any particular developmental age Retrieved 2007 02 21 According to Arthur Caplan there is no consensus among the medical and scientific experts about precisely when a fetus becomes pain capable Some put the point at 28 weeks Others say 26 or 24 and still others younger still Caplan Arthur Testimony to U S Congress Subcommittee on the Constitution Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Oversight Hearing on Pain of the Unborn 2005 11 01 Retrieved 2007 03 10