I Hurt, Therefore I ... Am?

:"Fetuses don't feel pain!"  A group of government-commissioned UK doctors proclaimed triumphantly at the end of a recent study on pain reception in utero.  This causes two strong reactions in me simultaneously.  First, my unborn child starts kicking me furiously, probably in response to the surge of rage-fueled adrenaline coursing through my/our system. Second, a more philosophical question bubbles to the surface: what the hell where they thinking when they set out to measure this, and how in God's name would you go about conducting such a study?  I mean, aside from asking an aging Nazi how they did things back in the day.

I can see the wheels turning in the minds of the government morons who conceived it: "hey, let's combat the growing pro life sentiment in Great Britain by ordering a torture trial on unborn babies, and then record the very earliest that they appear not to react to painful stimulus.  Then we can justify abortion at any date prior to 'pain consciousness'."

Brilliant.

Except that, if pain consciousness were the determining factor for one's humanity, then there are a few football players, little brothers and quadriplegics out there who don't deserve to be walking around under the guise of 'humanity'

Wow.  If this isn't cutting-edge scientific theory, I don't know what is.

If pain reception is indeed the humanizing factor which determines one's right to life, then let's throw everything else we know about autonomy out the window and just start slapping people until they cry, thus tangibly demonstrating for us their viability as a person.

This is just another disgusting example of junk science at its lowest level, but sadly it may well prove to be fodder for some idiotic arguments favoring later term abortions.

To read some intelligent, repeatable and long-standing facts on fetal pain sensitivity, read this, or go to the World Health Organization's site and check out, oh, just about any other study to date.

And pray.  Because this is twisted, this is wrong, and this is a very, very slippery slope we're teetering on.