Foetus feels no pain before 24 weeks, major review finds
Human foetus not capable of feeling pain before 24 weeks, major government-commissioned scientific review finds
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By Matt Hallam. |  |
Friday, 25, Jun 2010 04:21
By Matthew Champion.
The human foetus is not capable of feeling pain before 24 weeks, a major UK scientific review has found, striking a blow to campaigners who want the country's abortion laws changed.
The first of two-government commissioned reviews by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists concluded that connections in the foetal brain are not fully formed and the foetus itself is not conscious at 24 weeks.
"It was apparent that connections from the periphery to the cortex are not intact before 24 weeks of gestation and, as most neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain perception, it can be concluded that the foetus cannot experience pain in any sense prior to this gestation," the researchers wrote.
The uterus' chemical environment meanwhile induces a "continuous sleep-like unconsciousness or sedation".
The review adds that it is difficult to tell whether after 24 weeks "the foetus experiences pain because this, like all other experiences, develops postnatally along with memory and other learned behaviours".
In 2008 efforts to reduce the upper limit on abortion to 20 or 22 weeks was defeated in the Commons. The upper limit has been 24 weeks since the 1967 Abortion Act, although abortions are illegal in Northern Ireland unless the mother's health is at risk. David Cameron has hinted in the past that he may like to see the law revisited.
A second review by the RCOG said that it would not be practical to produce a list of conditions that would constitute serious handicap and thus enable an abortion on these grounds. Researchers said it was too difficult to predict the long-term impact of any abnormality on a child or family.
Josephine Quintavalle of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics said: "I think both reports tell us more about the RCOG's willing acceptance of late abortion than the reality of the scientific and ethical issues at stake."
A Downing Street spokeswoman added: "The prime minister's view is that he will be led by the science.
"At the moment there are no plans to change the policy."