At 7 weeks (Photo: Lennart Nilsson) LIFE Magazine, TIME Inc.
Fetal Pain Answers
Keep in mind, it was not until the last decade or so that doctors
determined that an infant (up to a year or more in age) can feel
pain during surgery. Prior to that, they were not anesthetizing
them.
My own son underwent surgery on the doctor's examination table when he was only a few days old. The doctor told me to hold him still but my baby's body was swinging like a pedulum from side to side while he screamed from absolutely agonizing pain, no doubt!
It was clear the doctor knew the baby would be experiencing pain
or there would have been no necessity to ask me to hold him still.
The doctor continued with the surgery despite the fact that he could see my son was experiencing horrible pain.
At the time, I was very young (18) and to oppose a doctor would have meant the authorities wold be called (worse yet, my Mother-in-Law who had been the doctor's nurse and who referred me to him.
I have since become much wiser. I provided this personal testimony to point out that, aside from not thinkng
that an unborn child feels pain, doctors didn't even recognize that a born child felt pain.
Singing a Sad Tune - CWA: Musicians are Singing About the Pain of Abortions
"Brain development begins within the second week after a child is conceived in the womb. The developing infant forms nerve cells during the first trimester, the same time all other organs are being formed. Nerve cells begin by creating a "scaffolding" of the nervous system and then as new brain cells form, they migrateto their respective place in the brain. Each cell has a specific function to perform and travels through the "scaffold" to its place much like driving on a highway when moving to a new home. The complexity of the brain dictates that brain development continues longer than that of most other systems and
