Infants Do Feel Pain

Ouch!   (Public Domain)

Although pain is somewhat of a subjective experience, it’s likely that all living beings feel some in one way or another.

The long-held belief that human infants are somehow immune from this affliction has finally been successfully challenged.  But not until 1987 was it formally declared “unethical to continue to operate on infants without the use of anesthetics.”

Because infants hadn’t responded the way that adults might to pinpricks, researchers back in the 1940s concluded that babies couldn’t feel pain.  Scientists failed to adequately interpret the responses that did occur.  And if newborns feel pain, it is quite probable that fetuses do also... 

Resources

https://www.newsweek.com/when-doctors-start-using-anesthesia-babies-medics-thought-they-couldnt-feel-pain-1625350

Copyright September 11, 2021 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved