Why do they scream if they can’t feel pain?

On 25 June 2010, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) released two Working Party reports on Fetal Awareness and Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Abnormality.

On 25 June 2010, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) released two Working Party reports on Fetal Awareness and Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Abnormality.

The RCOG’s report on Fetal Awareness makes a conclusory finding that the fetus cannot feel pain before 24 weeks. The report also asserts that the fetus is in a state of induced sleep and is unconscious while in the chemical environment of the womb. Because the fetus “cannot feel pain” and because it is “asleep and unconscious,” the RCOG finds no reason to review the abortion limit.

A quick rundown of terminology should be useful here. According to the Oxford Dictionary, pain is a strongly unpleasant bodily sensation such as is caused by illness or injury.

Wouldn’t it be commonsensical to say that death caused by a suction tube is a “strongly unpleasant bodily sensation caused by injury”? Wouldn’t that qualify as pain?

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Report, on the other hand, uses an altogether unique method to define pain. The Report from the 2006-2007 parliamentary session distinguishes between two types of pain, conscious pain (perception of pain with an emotional response) and subconscious pain (a physiological stress response to stimulus), and claims that the fetus may only be able to experience subconscious pain, thereby denying fetal awareness and supporting the current upper time limit for abortion.

However a well-known abortion documentary, The Silent Scream, proves quite a different point. The documentary uses ultrasound imagery to chronicle an abortion of a 12-week-old fetus. The child is first seen with a heartbeat of 140 per minute and occasionally sucks her thumb. Then as the suction tip begins to invade the womb (at this point the tip has not even touched the child), the child begins rearing violently and purposefully trying to move away. Her heartbeat increases to 200 beats per minute and even through the low quality of ultrasound images, the child’s mouth is visibly open in a “silent scream.” Is this not an emotional response?

With this new report the RCOG fails to recognize that pain is pain, whether it is conscious or subconscious, whether the response is emotional or physiological. Beyond the issue of pain and fetal awareness, the vital core of this debate seems to have been forgotten. Life is life and should be protected no matter how little or how fragile the life taken.

Andrea Minichiello Williams commented: “This is another example of the RCOG misleading the public on the true nature of life in the womb. It is a manipulation and distortion of the facts in an attempt to buttress the existing abortion law which cannot be justified in a civilised society.”