A foetus feels pain during an abortion procedure

The argument

Important neurological developments occur in a foetus at around the 7, 18 and 26-week marks, and each one of them, on this argument, brings the foetus closer to being able to feel pain. If that is right, a mother's access to abortion should be severely limited. The developmental case is presented as a sequence, because pain requires more than one system to be in place. At around 7 weeks the receptors in the skin begin to develop — the point at which a stimulus can be registered at all. Around 18 weeks into the pregnancy those receptors are connected to a spinal cord, which carries the pain signals onward; registering a stimulus and transmitting it are separate capacities, and the second is added here. Finally, between 23 and 26 weeks into the pregnancy, the spinal cord becomes connected to the cortex, the area of the brain where pain signals are perceived. With that connection the pathway is complete, and what was previously a signal becomes, on this account, an experience. Each of these developments could therefore allow the foetus to feel more pain than it could before, and the argument treats the capacity as increasing across gestation rather than switching on at a single moment. The moral conclusion follows from the capacity. If the foetus can feel pain, then, proponents of this position argue, an abortion procedure would be the same as murdering a child — the relevant likeness being that both involve inflicting suffering on something capable of suffering. Whatever else is disputed about the status of the foetus, the ability to feel pain is presented here as sufficient on its own to settle the question. Putting a foetus through the agony of a terminated pregnancy is, on this view, inhumane, and should not be permitted under any circumstance.

Context

A foetus develops the ability to feel pain very early in the pregnancy, potentially as early as seven or eight weeks.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The British Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists begs to differ. They argue that for pain to be felt, the foetus must have developed the cortex. A foetus does not develop this part of the brain until it has been in the womb for 26 weeks, well past the time that most abortions occur. Therefore, any abortion before this time would be painless. The American College of Obstetricians agrees. Even if these medical institutions prove to be wrong, the fact that the foetus feels pain is not enough to warrant banning abortions. It is possible to administer anaesthesia to a foetus which would make the procedure humane.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] A foetus doesn't feel pain until very late in the pregnancy. [Rejecting P3] Even if it could, there are ways to make the procedure more humane.