Life After Death

1991, deserved a Christian burial. The law has been even less obliging to other groups of people.

A Report by the Commission of Inquiry into Fetal Sentience Under the Chairmanship of The Rt Hon Lord Rawlinson of Ewell PC QC The main findings of the Commission were: l By 14 weeks, sensory perceptors are present over almost all the body surface, and the unborn baby is active and has a wide range of abilities, some of which start from very early in a baby's development. These abilities include vision, hearing, taste or smell, and detecting touch and harmful stimuli. Before birth a baby also has an ability for learning and memory. l Before birth a baby's abilities are tailored uniquely to life inside the womb. If observers only look for characteristics of behaviour based on ideas of how babies perform after birth, they are likely to underestimate how much an unborn baby can do. l New research demonstrates just how critical the period in the womb is for the long-term health and development of the individual. Potentially painful stimuli before birth may cause permanent changes in the nervous system, making the individual more sensitive to pain for the rest of his or her life. l Since there is no direct, objective method of assessing pain in any subject, adult or fetus, human or animal, conclusions about the experience of pain must be based on what is considered to be reasonable from the available evidence. l Only in the last decade has the scientific community realised that babies born either at term or prematurely may feel pain. Until recently many operations were performed on newborn babies with only limited pain relief. l Almost everyone now agrees that unborn babies have the ability to feel pain by 24 weeks after conception and there is a considerable and growing body of evidence that the fetus may be able to experience suffering from around 11 weeks of development. Some commentators point out that the earliest movement in the baby has been observed at 5.5 weeks after conception, and that it may be able to suffer from this stage. l As more evidence is being uncovered about the abilities of the unborn child, the stage at which it is thought that the baby may suffer is getting earlier. It appears increasingly likely that pain and suffering are being inflicted on unborn babies. l In medical or veterinary practice where there is uncertainty about whether a newborn baby, child, adult or animal can feel pain it is normal for them to be