I Love Greeks

One of my friends, we'll call her GW, goes to a Greek orthodox church. Apparently, one day in Sunday school they talked about a movie called The Silent Scream, which argues that a fetus can feel pain. For evidence, according to GW (I've never seen the film), images of an 11-week old fetus during an abortion were shown, and the fetus's mouth looked like it was screaming (hence the title). At the time of my discussion with GW, I had no evidence with which to refute this claim.

But now I do!

In an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association(1), researchers concluded that

Pain is an emotional and psychological experience that requires conscious
recognition of a noxious stimulus. Consequently, the capacity for conscious
perception of pain can arise only after
thalamocortical pathways begin to
function, which may occur in the third trimester around 29 to 30 weeks’
gestational age, based on the limited data available.

So, basically, it is kind of impossible for a fetus to feel pain until the third trimester (as a general rule, of course). Argue with that.

This is why I should be President.
-TS

PS: I think I should win a prize for a title which has almost nothing to do with the post :)

1)Lee, Susan J., Ralston, Henry J. Peter, Drey, Eleanor A., Partridge, John Colin, & Rosen, Mark A. (2005). Fetal Pain: A Systematic Multidisciplinary Review of the Evidence. Journal of the American Medical Association, 294 (8), 947-954.

PS2) Note that the source I used was published in a scientific, peer reviewed journal, and the source GW used was a video put out by Several Sources Shelters, a non-profit Christian organization *cough*biased*cough*. Just saying...

PS3) I still love you, GW!