Fetus’ don’t feel pain?

A recent article in the Weekend Australian (26-27 June 2010) reports on an extraordinary ‘claim ‘ by Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists that a fetus feels no pain prior to twenty-four weeks old. How can they possibly believe what they report when there are ultra-sound images on record (just look on the internet) of fetal thumb-sucking at the age of about 14 weeks. It is also reported (again see the internet) that a fetus can hear from around 23 weeks. This means it HAS senses – if it can hear, if it can feel its thumb then surely, in spite of what the ‘experts’ say a baby has senses and it can feel things like pleasure and pain. I copied and pasted a section of an article by Dr JC Becher, Specialist Registrar in Neonatology, Department of Neonatology, Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, which is of interest -

• Ultrasound provides remarkable pictures of the fetus allowing the study of early development as well as diagnosis of congenital abnormalities.
• Fetal movement begins about 7.5 weeks after conception and by 14 weeks flexion, extension, rotation, thumb sucking and yawning occur.
• Even when seemingly purposeful, early movements are due to reflexes occurring at spinal cord level.
• Purposive movement depends on brain maturation. This begins at about 18 weeks and progressively replaces reflex movements, which disappear by about 8 months after birth. Persistence of reflex activity is common when brain damage has occurred.
• The fetus can hear from around 23 weeks, and shows response to maternal speech. Fetal learning has been shown in response to sound.
• Most cerebral palsy is due to brain injury acquired in the womb. Ultrasound study of fetal behaviour may identify such abnormal neurological development before birth.
Sensory development in the fetus has been studied mostly in response to sound, and hearing can be shown as early as 23 weeks’ gestation. Fetuses respond with a slowing of the heart rate during maternal speech. There is evidence to suggest that fetuses can differentiate between different speech sounds and show preference for the maternal native language. It may be that experience of speech prenatally begins the process of acquiring language postnatally.”


It was not that many years ago the male babies were circumcised without anaesthetics because ‘experts’ said that babies did not feel pain. How wrong they were. Common sense has prevailed and this barbaric practice has ceased – at least in Australia. Any parent can tell an ‘expert’ that babies feel pain, feel discomfort and feel hunger. Aren’t these sensory perceptions? Isn’t that what feeling are?

Experts – Ha!! They cause more trouble than they are worth.

Hope!

Hope is both a word and a symbol, yet it is a highly subjective term, which everyone thinks they know what it means but yet cannot define. In fact it is best defined by its opposite, by its antonym – despair. Hope is the antithesis of despair. As a symbol it stands for something, an intrinsic essence, which we all understand but cannot explain. Hope is more than a belief, though it is often defined as such – a belief that the situation will get better. Similarly hope is much more than a wish, even though it is often used in this way. It is more a combination of a judgement, an optimistic outlook and an ‘inner knowledge’ that everything comes to pass and all will be well. What ‘inner knowledge’ means is, of course, something else again though those who have experienced it (and most of us have at some stage of our lives) know that it is somewhat akin to a conviction.

Hope is not dependent on some future event - this is a wish. It is a present experience dependent on nothing but itself. Furthermore hope never comes suddenly but always results, if at all, from a gradual, and almost certainly an unconscious, reappraisal of the current (and generally calamitous) situation and based on this a judgement is made – either hope or despair. It has in it an element almost of faith, which is defined most elegantly in the King James Bible (Heb 11:1) – “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” - but it is more than faith.

Hope is a very important ‘element’ of life and has been so since the beginning. In many instances life would not be worth living if not for hope. If hope is lost, individuals, groups and whole societies can be doomed. Destroying hope is a ruthless tool used by autocratic, dictatorial and oppressive regimes wherever they are found. Just think of Hitler and Jews; Pol Pot and the intellectuals of Cambodia; Stalin and anyone who disagreed with his beliefs; the Israeli’s and Palestinians; the current Iranian government and those imprisoned for wanting a more liberal society; the current Chinese government and Tibetans, Uighurs and Falun Gong. In fact anyone who does not willingly conform to any ruler or government’s current way of thinking is in danger of being constrained and placed in a situation which destroys hope. This is the ultimate punishment.

Hope features in myth and legend. Most of us have heard the term ‘Pandora’s Box’ (or more correctly it should be a jar) – but may not know the story behind the term. It is a story worth repeating.

In the ancient Greek legend about the beginning of mankind and how the travails that beset human beings came into being, Pandora (meaning the ‘all gifted’) was the first woman sent by Zeus to earth. Typical of all Greek legends it is complex and multi-layered, with many possible meanings.

In the beginning when the world was new and man (as in male) had just been created by Zeus (according to the legend), Prometheus stole fire from heaven, for the benefit and comfort of man. Zeus was extremely angry at this and took revenge by presenting Pandora to man. As part of her outfit, Pandora had a jar (sometimes described as a box) which she was told never to open under any circumstance. Driven by her natural curiosity, Pandora opened the container and all the evils and travails that now beset mankind escaped and spread over the earth. In shock she quickly closed the jar (or dropped the lid of the box), but the whole contents of the container had escaped, except for one thing, Hope.

It has been said (by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, I think) that Hope was at the bottom of the container and remained there because it was the most dangerous and injurious element for Mankind. He maintained that people will persevere with, or seemingly accept, the most severe physical and emotional pain and suffering if they have Hope.This is a very negative view of Hope.

Despair is dark whereas Hope is light and as moths to a candle humans are attracted by the light of Hope and repelled by the darkness of Despair. It is the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel.”

In the darkest hours and when confronted by the most severe calamities of life, never give up Hope. Remember everything comes to pass and there will be the light of a new dawn.