Nevertheless, unlike other scientific claims put forward by the anti-abortion movement—about the putative connection between abortion and breast cancer, for example—there is a genuine empirical debate about these issues. After all, according to Mark Mercurio, a professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine, neonatologists broadly accept that extremely premature babies feel pain. Mercurio has cared for babies born as early as 23 weeks and says, “Based on the data I have seen and based on what I see clinically, I treat every baby in my intensive care unit as if they were capable of experiencing pain.”
The most well-known proponent of the fetal-pain hypothesis is Kanwaljeet J.S. Anand, a professor of pediatrics, anesthesiology, and neurobiology at the University of Tennessee. His argument is essentially that the cerebral cortex, the seat of consciousness that doesn’t fully develop until late in pregnancy, is not necessary to experience pain. Other mechanisms that develop earlier, he says, are sufficient. Thus, testifying before Congress in 2005, he said, “We cannot dismiss the high likelihood of fetal pain perception before the third trimester of human gestation.”
It’s possible that Anand is right, and his research is certainly worthwhile. As Mercurio, who holds him in high regard, says, “I don’t think we should slow scientific inquiry because we’re concerned about what legislators might do with it.” Nevertheless, it’s a minority view.
