Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Fetal Pain and Morality

Originally saw an AP article about this in the Belleville News-Democrat, but here's the CNN version.

Apparently, some researchers think they've determined that unborn fetuses (i.e. babies) cannot feel pain until late into the pregnancy. This claim has been controversial, as other researchers in this area disagree.

I may be a scientist, but I'm not well versed in the evidence in this area. I can't say who's right on the issue.

What I can say is that whether or not the child feels pain does not change the morality of the situation. Killing an unborn child is still wrong, regardless of the pain it feels.

Yes, talking about the child feeling pain is a good way to get a reaction out of someone, because the thought of causing anyone pain, much less your unborn child, makes us very uneasy. But granting that unborn children feel pain at X day of pregnancy only changes the abortion argument into, "Okay, then we'll do it humanely; give it morphine, then slice it into easily extractable pieces."

I repeat, for emphasis: Killing an unborn child is wrong, whether it feels pain or not.

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