Abortion is and always has been a very controversial debate for those who identify as pro-life or pro-choice. According to Katie Yoder, author of “National Right to Life News,” “From 2015 to 2016, Planned Parenthood performed 328,348 abortions. To put that in perspective, that's 4,349 more abortions than the year before the previous year” (Yoder). Abortion is wrong and people should outlaw these procedures because they cause immense pain to the fetuses, can lead to greater health risk for women and there is an always the choice of adoption. To begin, abortion is the destruction of the fetus or embryo in the womb before the birth process has occurred which means killing a person. It is wrong to allow for a doctor to stop someone’s life without the consent of the person who is being eviscerated. For a while, there has been a long discussion on how the fetus can in fact feel pain:
It has been suggested that the preborn after 20 weeks of gestation feel pain. Dr. Sunny Anand, director of the Pain Neurobiology Lab at Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute, said that not only can the fetus feel pain at 20 weeks, but that "the pain perceived by a fetus is possibly more intense" than that of newborns or older children. (Washington Times p. A20.)
Based on this research by Dr. Anand’s lab, it has been tested and explained that the fetus does in fact feel the pain of the procedure after the twentieth week. Some other studies prove that the fetus can feel pain as early as
These claims are false. According to a review conducted in 2010 by Britain’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, “most neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain perception” (procon.org). According to Dr. Mark Rosen, the pioneer of anesthesia for fetal surgeries, “The cortex begins emerging around the 23rd week, is not functionally developed until the 26th or later, and continues developing after birth.” (Pam Belluck). This study was also endorsed by the American College of Obstetricians and
According to Justice Harry Blackmun's greater part sentiment, a lady's wellbeing incorporates her "physical, passionate, mental, (and) familial" prosperity, and ought to incorporate contemplations about the lady's age. "Every one of these variables may identify with wellbeing," Blackmun contended, in order to give “the attending physician the room he needs to make his best medical judgment” (“U.S Abortion Law”). During the first trimester of a woman’s pregnancy, she is typically between one to twelve weeks pregnant and this is when most women undergo the surgical procedure to terminate the pregnancy. Without verbal reports and direct access to the brain of a fetus, inductions about what embryos can encounter rely upon the translation of secondary proof (Derbyshire). As examined, neuroanatomical pathways important for processing pain, like those saw in grown-ups and more established kids, could be set up by twenty three weeks' gestation. The cliché hormonal pressure reaction of grown-ups or more established newborn children, of around year and a half onwards, revealing agony is discernible in fetus at eight teen weeks'
Fetal pain is very difficult to prove or disprove because of its subjective nature. Some argue that the fetus cannot feel pain until the 24th week of gestation because connections from the periphery to the cortex are not available until then (Derbyshire, 2015). By contrast, others say fetal pain is possible before 24 weeks on the basis that the fetus has a mechanism to detect noxious events and will respond to noxious events by withdrawing and grimacing (Derbyshire, 2015). The American Medical Association go even further that those two assumptions and state that pain perception in preterm neonates probably does not exist before 29 or 30 weeks (Arora & Salazar, 2014). Although no definitive conclusion is reached, fetal pain is a big factor that influences the abortion debate. As of 2016, there are 12 states that actively ban abortion after 20 weeks citing fetal pain (Fantz, 2016). They include Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota,
Another argument is abortions are painful for an unborn child to go through. While most abortions are usually done prior to the end of the first trimester there are abortions that are done in the second or third trimester. The medical community has different views on whether or not an unborn child can feel pain before 20 weeks. Some doctors will say a child can feel pain at as soon as eight weeks while others will say they won’t be able to feel pain until after the 20 weeks mark.
From research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, experts have concluded premature newborns have to have at least 22 weeks in the womb before being able to survive on itself, well after most abortions are performed. Another well-founded line of reasoning from Pro-Life people is that, “Fetuses feel pain during some procedures.” Actually, according to a review by Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, "most neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain perception." The cortex doesn’t function until over 26 weeks of gestation, long after almost all abortions happen. Some say that “abortion defies the word of God.” Remember: The United States has freedom of religion, and the US laws have to respect people of all spiritual
To begin with, fetus can’t feel pain because the cortex isn’t functional until around the 26th week. When the fetus is fully functional it is usually after an abortion is performed.There also isn’t any scientific information that the fetus experiences pain. According to Stuart Derbyshire, PhD, Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, England, stated that, “Biological development has not occurred to help support pain experience.
A fetus is not physically attached to the woman carrying it but more importantly its well being and health depends on her health as well. They are separated and acquire separate identities only at the time of birth. Pain can be perceived in infants only after 20 weeks according the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. The reflex actions present before this period do not indicate any ability to feel pain. Abortions are almost always performed before 24 weeks.
Neonates were once thought to be too developmentally immature to experience pain, it has been now understood that neonates even if very premature are able to process pain sensations and respond to that pain (Boyle, 2011). Although it is now understood that neonates can sense pain, it has been found that procedures have not changed to adequately address pain in the neonate. It has been found that pain in neonates that is over a long period or multiple acute pain experiences has long term effects on how pain is perceived into childhood (Boyle, 2011). One intervention that has been found to decrease pain experienced by a neonate is sucrose. It has been found that sucrose takes about two minutes to take effect and provides an analgesic
Another major issue regarding abortion is if a fetus feels pain. A study by Stuart G. W. Derbyshire examines the development of the fetus to decode when pain is acknowledged. Pain is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (Derbyshire, 2006, The Content of Pain). Working with this definition, one can derive that an understanding of the senses and emotions should be present at some cognitive level to feel pain. Therefore, pain becomes a learned response instead of a natural one because the association between the senses and the reaction is not yet learned. “This is likely to strike anyone as strange because it is simply not how we intuitively believe pain to be… Not only has the biological development not yet occurred to support pain experience, but the environment after birth, so necessary to the development of pain
The first rating was taken once the women was fully dilated, the second rating was right when the women was told to push, and the third rating was once the child was completely outside of the womb. It was found that the middle-eastern group rated their pain higher than the western group. It was also concluded that the lower education level groups ranked their pain higher than the higher education level groups. The relationship between culture and educational group concluded that there was not much of a difference in pain ratings between the lower and high educational levels of the western group, however the middle-eastern group with lower education levels ranked their pain higher than the middle-eastern group with higher
What a pro-life advocate would argue the fact the embryo can hear, cry, feel fear, feel pain, and have a conscious thought. Realistically, none of these things are remotely accurate when talking about an early stage embryo. According to the Mayo Clinic, “the earliest an unborn child could conceivably hear anything would be sixteen weeks post-fertilization.” In a 2005 article published by the British Medical Journal, the article documents for the first time a fetus cries in the womb. They suggest that “fetal crying is possible at twenty weeks post-fertilization”. The biggest debate is on when embryos can feel pain. Research done by Christopher Bowen, has come to the conclusion that, “It’s my opinion that once the thalamus has been formed, at 10 weeks post-fertilization, this marks the earliest that the fetus has the capability to consciously perceive pain at least on some primal level, and can definitely feel pain by 14 weeks post-fertilization.” By the time the mother finds out she is pregnant, she has plenty of time to decide whether to terminate the pregnancy before the fetus has any conception of pain.
Childbirth is a beautiful thing. After the hours of labor, there is nothing more special than having the newly mother able to hold her child the minute after it’s born. It makes the pain that you had just experienced go away because all that matters in the world is that newborn child in your arms. During labor, every woman has her own experience but one common experience is the pain. According to Kitzinger (1978) “Labor pain can have negative or positive meaning, depending on whether the child is wanted, the interaction of the laboring woman with those attending her, her sense of ease or dis-ease in the environment provided for birth, her relationship with the father of her child and her attitude to her body throughout the reproductive
Pregnancy and childbirth are a part of nature. Delivering a child can be a beautiful experience. However, delivery can also be very painful and can last for days.
An unborn baby is alive, and has a heartbeat 22 days after conception. At 6 weeks, fingernails form, and at week 8, a baby is able to hear. At 20 weeks, a baby can feel pain.
At one time doctors did not believe that babies could experience pain, but recent studies have proven this to be wrong. Infants can feel touch, this is why when you touch them they turn their head and look at you. Because they can feel touch they can also feel pain. This was found because infants cry when being given a shot or having blood taken. They are able to feel pain like we are, they are just much more resilient in recovering than we are.