Fetal Pain cont It seems that the info in this articles 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  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 techniquesFetal Pain A Systematic Multidisciplinary Review of the Evidence JAMA  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  a small group of physicians argued that the ability of a fetus to feel pain appears as early as seven weeks after conceptionRobinson BA  Can a fetus feel pain Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance Retrieved December    Most medical researchers agree pain cannot be felt until the third trimester of pregnancy or until after birthStudy 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  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 establishedJohnson Martin and Everitt Barry  Essential reproduction Blackwell  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   According to Arthur Caplan there is no consensus among the medical and scientific experts about precisely when a fetus becomes paincapable  Some put the point at  weeks Others say  or  and still others younger stillCaplan Arthur  Testimony to US Congress Subcommittee on the Constitution Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Oversight Hearing on Pain of the Unborn   Retrieved