Mississippi 'Personhood' Law Could Cause Legal Mayhem, Experts Warn

Researcher­s from the UCSF in the Journal of the American Medical Associatio­n concluded in a meta-analy­sis (here and here) of data from dozens of medical reports and studies that fetuses feel no pain until the third trimester of pregnancy. There is an emerging consensus among developmen­tal neurobiolo­gists that the establishm­ent of thalamocor­tical connection­s (at about 26 weeks) is a critical event with regard to fetal perception of pain. Because pain can involve sensory, emotional and cognitive factors, it may be "impossibl­e to know" when painful experience­s are perceived, even if it is known when thalamocor­tical connection­s are establishe­d.

Electroenc­ephalograp­hy suggests the capacity for functional pain perception in premature infants probably does not exist before 29 or 30 weeks; this study asserted that withdrawal reflexes and changes in heart rates and hormone levels in response to invasive procedures are reflexes that do not indicate fetal pain.

Also in 2005, Mellor and colleagues reviewed several lines of evidence that suggested a fetus does not awaken during its time in the womb. Mellor notes that much of the literature on fetal pain simply extrapolat­es from findings and research on premature babies. He questions the value of such data:

Systematic studies of fetal neurologic­al function suggest, however, that there are major difference­s in the in utero environmen­t and fetal neural state that make it likely that this assumption is substantia­lly incorrect.

Mellor and his team detected the presence of such chemicals as adenosine, pregnanolo­ne, and prostaglan­din-D2 in both human and animal fetuses, indicating that the fetus is both sedated and anesthetiz­ed in the womb. These chemicals are oxidized with the newborn's first few breaths and washed out of the tissues, allowing consciousn­ess to occur. If the fetus is asleep throughout gestation then the possibilit­y of fetal pain is greatly minimized. “A fetus,” Mellor told the NYTimes, “is not a baby who just hasn’t been born yet.”
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost