Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new study put out by a British group of doctors makes the false claim that unborn children don't have the ability to feel pain before birth. The new research published by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says an unborn baby can't feel pain until the later parts of pregnancy, at about 24 weeks.
The new study claims the nerve connections to the brain are not fully developed to the point at which babies before birth have the ability to feel pain.
While claiming fetal pain doesn't begin until late in pregnancy, the doctors also suggest that, after 24 weeks into the pregnancy, sunburn children are in a state of "continuous sleep-like unconsciousness or sedation."
Dr. Steven Zielinski, an internal medicine physician from Oregon, is one of the leading researchers into the concept of fetal pain and published the first reports in the 1980s to validate research show evidence for it.
He has testified before Congress that an unborn child could feel pain at "eight-and-a-half weeks and possibly earlier" and that a baby before birth "under the right circumstances, is capable of crying."
Dr. Vincent J. Collins, Zielinski and attorney Thomas J. Marzen were the top researchers to point to fetal pain decades ago. Collins, before his death, was Professor of Anesthesiology at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois and author of Principles of Anesthesiology, one of the leading medical texts on the control of pain.
"The functioning neurological structures necessary to suffer pain are developed early in a child's development in the womb," they wrote.
"Functioning neurological structures necessary for pain sensation are in place as early as 8 weeks, but certainly by 13 1/2 weeks of gestation. Sensory nerves, including nociceptors, reach the skin of the fetus before the 9th week of gestation. The first detectable brain activity occurs in the thalamus between the 8th and 10th weeks. The movement of electrical impulses through the neural fibers and spinal column takes place between 8 and 9 weeks gestation. By 13 1/2 weeks, the entire sensory nervous system functions as a whole in all parts of the body," they continued.