IF FETUSES could talk, legislating on their behalf would be a lot easier. But in the absence of direct testimony, politicians are taking significant decisions about fetal welfare based on controversial claims about whether or not they can feel pain.
In the US, for example, a government openly opposed to abortion claims that fetuses feel pain from 20 weeks after conception. Congress is even considering proposing federal laws that would force doctors to inform women seeking an abortion of this, and to offer them the opportunity to have their fetus anaesthetised. Arkansas and Georgia enacted similar state laws this year,…
