Reports on foetal pain

UK PARLIAMENTARY PRO-LIFE GROUP 2000

A report from the Parliamentary Pro-Life Group in the UK published in 2000 found that the unborn foetus is capable of feeling pain from the tenth week of pregnancy. The report of findings by 15 scientists from Britain, Ireland and Australia said that foetuses can experience pain earlier than previously thought. Of the 165,000 abortions carried out in England and Wales each year, about 100,000 are performed at nine weeks or later.

The report, runs counter to evidence presented in an official review by Maria Fitzgerald, Professor of Neurodevelopmental Biology at University College Hospital, London, which was commissioned by the Health Department. Her review, Foetal Pain - An Update of Current Scientific Knowledge, published in May 1995, concluded that there was no evidence that the foetus could feel pain earlier than 26 weeks because its brain and neurological system were not sufficiently developed.

Some scientists, not linked with the Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, questioned Professor Fitzgerald's conclusion.

As reported in The Times February 2000, Nicholas Fisk and Vivette Glover, two of Britain's foremost researchers on foetal pain, say the issue demands examination. Professor Fisk, Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital, Chiswick, London measured levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in foetuses from which blood samples were taken in the womb.

He found that the level rose sharply as the needle was inserted. "This is the first evidence that the human foetus mounts a definable stress response to a potentially painful stimulus," he said.

Advances in surgery mean that many foetuses undergo operations inside the womb without analgesia even though pain relief is routinely given to premature babies of the same gestational age undergoing the procedure after birth.

UK RAWLINSON COMMISSION 1996

In 1996 the Rawlinson Commission of Inquiry into Foetal Sentience, UK, discovered that a large, and growing, body of evidence suggested that a baby can feel pain and sensation from 11 weeks of gestation.

Human Sentience Before Birth A Report by the Commission of Inquiry into Foetal Sentience