Many blog readers have probably seen the reports by researchers doubting that unborn babies feel much pain up to a certain point in their development.
I won't take JAMA to task for presenting an overview of academic research, though I would think that some of that research may be politically motivated.
The part that will make you crazy is this:
"One woman said she would pray for my soul," DeAngelis [the editor] said Thursday. "I could use all the prayers I can get." She said she is a staunch Roman Catholic and strongly opposes abortion, though she also supports women's right to choose.
and it gets worse, in the very last sentence of the article:
DeAngelis said she attends Mass at least weekly and is also a Eucharistic minister, which allows her to administer communion to fellow Catholics.
I'm not sure of the point of the pain study. Is it okay to shoot my wife as long as I anesthetize her first?
Ms DeAngelis should pray that her bishop doesn't get wind of this. It is not unusual in the present day, for people who make such announcements to be relieved of their ministerial duties. If I were her pastor, she'd already be replaced.
Dateline of the article is Chicago, so could we presume she is a parishioner in a Chicago parish, and hence under the archbishop of Chicago, Francis Eugene George?
As I understand it from one news story two of the authors of the so-called report are part of the abortion industry and are presumably eager to protect their income.
Is the pain system something that just turns on one day? You don't have any pain neurons reaching the brain and then, in one instant, you do? I would find it much more likely that pain producing structures (mostly neurons) start out as a cell here or there and then grow gradually to create the fully functioning system. After all, your lungs aren't done until late in the pregnancy but premature babies do breathe.