We all know children feel pain more acutely than adults. Parents know the experience of treating a child's mildly scraped knees as if, judging by the tears and shouts of our little ones, they were life-threatening injuries. How far back in life does the ability to experience pain reach? And what bearing does this have on the abortion issue?
Nurse Barbara Willke and her husband, Dr. John Willke, explain that unborn humans feel pain from 8 weeks after conception. They write: "What is needed is 1) a sensory nerve to feel the pain and send a message to 2) the thalamus, a part of the base of the brain, and 3) motor nerves to send a message to that area. These are present at 8 weeks." Referencing a 1980 British Medical Journal article entitled "What the fetus feels", the Willke's continue: "Try sticking an 8 week old fetus in the palm of his hand. He opens his mouth and pulls his hand away. A more technical description would add that changes in heart rate and fetal movement also suggest that intrauterine manipulations are painful to the fetus." Naturally, ability to feel pain continues for the rest of a child's time in the womb and into post-birth life.
Concern that children not suffer unjust pain features more and more prominently in Swaziland's public discussions. Let us take one step to ensure children do not suffer unjust pain and punishment by making sure no child experiences the excruciating and inescapable pain of a life-ending abortion. No to abortion; yes to life.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
