Does a fetus feel pain? (And, if so, when?)

[fuzzyfungus]

@technogeekagain

It’s an interesting question, partly because the definition of “pain” is subject to shades of meaning. (Is a spinal-reflex response to move away from an irritation pain, itch, pressure, or none of the above?).

That issue has (albeit without any terribly satisfying conclusions) been hashed around for ages with assorted non-human animals. Between the sheer variety, and the fact that most of them have their own stages of maturity, you can find almost any gradation of ‘meh, rudimentary stimulus response’ to ‘disconcertingly possible that it experiences anguish in the first-porpoise’