Infants' sense of pain is recognized, finally (1987)
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Re: Infants' sense of pain is recognized, finally (1987)
#2Re: Infants' sense of pain is recognized, finally (1987)
#3> Newborns do feel pain.
Presumably it doesn't switch on from nothing at birth, and pre-borns feel pain too. I'm pro-choice on abortion, but perhaps we should at least anaesthetise the fetus before late term abortions. Is that done? Or is their pain denied? Or is compassion toward that pain too difficult in the circumstances?
Re: Infants' sense of pain is recognized, finally (1987)
#4This is, I believe, one of the downsides of empiricism and the fixation on citation rather than observation and reason. The idea that a whole profession came to reject the idea that infants are able to feel pain is astonishing, especially considering anyone who has ever taken care of infants knows that these little human beings react to things which are known to be painful. Babies feeling pain is something that should be self-evident, shouldn't it? It may not be empirically evident, but decisions can still be made without such metrics.
Don't get me wrong, empiricism and citation is valuable. However, a myopic focus on it enables some very twisted conclusions.
Re: Infants' sense of pain is recognized, finally (1987)
#5This is, I believe, one of the downsides of empiricism and the fixation on citation rather than observation and reason. The idea that a whole profession came to reject the idea that infants are able to feel pain is astonishing, especially considering anyone who has ever taken care of infants knows that these little human beings react to things which are known to be painful. Babies feeling pain is something that shoul…
True. Lobotomies used to be common practice as well. Even a surgery performed recently, UPPP, for treating sleep apnea is "no longer recommended"... It was only five or ten years ago where they would perform this incredibly invasive surgery, but enough research shows they're not that effective.
Re: Infants' sense of pain is recognized, finally (1987)
#6It's fucking scary, that this was recognized in 1987. In the 80s and even in the 90s most places did complex operations on newborns without any kind of painkillers -- imagine a heart surgery without painkillers. Not to mention "simple" stuff like circumcision.
Also by this time they knew this about animals too. I think people will look at us as barbarians that we ate them when we knew that they feel pain, can sense the world similar to us, and it would be just a minor inconvenience to eat something else.
Re: Infants' sense of pain is recognized, finally (1987)
#7> Newborns do feel pain. Presumably it doesn't switch on from nothing at birth, and pre-borns feel pain too. I'm pro-choice on abortion, but perhaps we should at least anaesthetise the fetus before late term abortions. Is that done? Or is their pain denied? Or is compassion toward that pain too difficult in the circumstances?
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Re: Infants' sense of pain is recognized, finally (1987)
#8It's fucking scary, that this was recognized in 1987. In the 80s and even in the 90s most places did complex operations on newborns without any kind of painkillers -- imagine a heart surgery without painkillers. Not to mention "simple" stuff like circumcision. Also by this time they knew this about animals too. I think people will look at us as barbarians that we ate them when we knew that they feel pain, can sense t…
Having had surgery as an infant in the mid 1970s, I guess I'm glad that I can't remember back that far.
Re: Infants' sense of pain is recognized, finally (1987)
#9> Newborns do feel pain. Presumably it doesn't switch on from nothing at birth, and pre-borns feel pain too. I'm pro-choice on abortion, but perhaps we should at least anaesthetise the fetus before late term abortions. Is that done? Or is their pain denied? Or is compassion toward that pain too difficult in the circumstances?
IIRC the consensus is that a fetus likely starts to experience pain in the second trimester. Over 90% of all abortions happen in the first trimester.
Re: Infants' sense of pain is recognized, finally (1987)
#10Given that we are actively attempting to deny the fact that fetuses feel pain, are we really that much more civilized?
Citation on my claim that there are those who deny that fetuses feel pain: http://www.healthlawpolicy.org/fetal-anesthesia/