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An Act of Recognition.(abortion law)
A newly introduced bill that proposes to inform a woman of the capacity of her unborn child to feel pain during an abortion will help bring American law into the modern era of embryology.
Scientists and physicians who have been aware of the tremendous advances in our understanding of fetal physiology over the past two decades have been dismayed that the legal attitude toward the unborn is literally frozen in time. It can be hoped that when it comes to a humane recognition of the humanity of the unborn, the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act will be a first step.
The bill would require every abortionist to provide the pregnant woman with information about the capacity of her unborn child to feel pain whenever an abortion is contemplated at 20 weeks gestation or beyond, the point at which modern science now recognizes fetal pain awareness. The woman would then need to either accept or refuse (by signing a form) the administration of pain-reducing drugs directly to the doomed unborn child. The bill would apply to all abortions past 20 weeks, regardless of the method used.
The pain system (the "spino-thalamic tract") makes its first appearance when the unborn is still an embryo (first 8 weeks), when tiny pain receptors under the skin appear over the face.
Over the next few weeks these pain detectors spread to cover the entire body. Long slender connecting wires ("axons") grow to hook the receptors up to the central pathways in the spinal cord and brain stem, and eventually to the central pain relay station called the thalamus, an achievement reached by 14 weeks.
The final push from the deeply located thalamus up to the brain surface, where pain "awareness" takes place, occurs by 20 weeks. It is at this stage that the unborn baby possesses the full complement of cells on the surface of the brain that are present in an adult. If an unborn baby is hurt at this point or beyond, she will feel it.
At a recent hearing in New York City, conducted in response to legal challenges to the constitutionality of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, ...
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Source: HighBeam Research, An Act of Recognition.(abortion law)