The Nonlinear Library EA - The Scale of Fetal Suffering in Late-Term Abortions by Ariel Simnegar
Mar 17, 2024
08:21
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The Scale of Fetal Suffering in Late-Term Abortions, published by Ariel Simnegar on March 17, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
This is a draft amnesty post.
Summary
It seems plausible that fetuses can suffer from 12 weeks of age, and quite reasonable that then can suffer from 24 weeks of age.
Some late-term abortion procedures seem that they might cause a fetus excruciating suffering.
Over 35,000 of these procedures occur each year in the US alone.
Further research would be desired on interventions to reduce this suffering, such as mandating fetal anesthesia for late-term abortions.
Background
Most people agree that a fetus has the capacity to suffer at some point. If a fetus has the capacity to suffer, then we ought to reduce that suffering when possible. Fetal anesthesia is standard practice for fetal surgery,[1] but I am unaware of it ever being used during late-term abortions. If the fetus can suffer, these procedures likely cause the fetus extreme pain.
I think the cultural environment EAs usually live in tends to minimize concern for fetal suffering. Some worry that promoting care for fetal welfare will play into the hands of abortion opposers. However, as Brian Tomasik has pointed out, one can certainly support abortion as an option while recognizing the potential for fetal consciousness during late-term abortion procedures.
Surgical Abortion Procedures
LI (Labor Induction)[2]
Gestational age: 20+ weeks.
Method: The fetus is administered a lethal injection with no anesthesia, often of potassium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest and death within a minute.
The Human Rights Watch calls the use of potassium chloride for the death penalty without anesthesia "excruciatingly painful" because it "inflames the potassium ions in the sensory nerve fibers, literally burning up the veins as it travels to the heart."[3] The American Veterinary Medical Association considers the use of potassium chloride without anesthesia "unacceptable" when euthanizing vertebrate animals.[4]
D&E (Dilation and Evacuation)[5]
Gestational age: 13-24 weeks.
Method: The fetus's limbs are torn off before the fetus's head is crushed. The procedure takes several minutes.
When Can a Fetus Suffer?
The traditional view of fetal sentience has been that "the cortex and intact thalamocortical tracts," which develop after 24 weeks, "are necessary for pain experience."[6] However, mounting evidence of suffering from adults with disabled cortices and animals without cortices has cast doubt on the traditional view.[7] "Overall, the evidence, and a balanced reading of that evidence, points towards an immediate and unreflective pain experience mediated by the developing function of the nervous
system from as early as 12 weeks."[8] 12 weeks is when the first projections are made into the fetus's cortical subplate,[9] which will eventually grow into the cortex.
I am a layperson who doesn't have the expertise to evaluate these studies. However, I don't see a good reason to have substantially less concern for 24+ week fetuses than for infants. Though the arguments for 12-24 week fetuses are weaker, it still seems plausible that they have some capacity to suffer. Given the potential scale of fetal suffering due to late-term abortions, it seems that this evidence is worth seriously examining.
Scale in US and UK
2021 UK[10]
The following is a selection from the UK abortion data tables:
7a: Weeks from Gestation
13 to 14
15 to 19
20+
Total Abortions
5,322
5,528
2,686
D&E (%)
25%
74%
44%
LI with surgical evacuation (%)
0%
1%
18%
LI with medical evacuation (%)
0%
0%
20%
Assuming the given percentages are exact, this gives us:
Abortion Procedure
Abortions per Year (UK)
D&E
6,603
LI
1,076
2020 USA[11]
36,531 surgical abortions at >13 weeks and 4,382 abortions at 21 weeks were reported.
In 2021 UK, 38% of the 20 we...
This is a draft amnesty post.
Summary
It seems plausible that fetuses can suffer from 12 weeks of age, and quite reasonable that then can suffer from 24 weeks of age.
Some late-term abortion procedures seem that they might cause a fetus excruciating suffering.
Over 35,000 of these procedures occur each year in the US alone.
Further research would be desired on interventions to reduce this suffering, such as mandating fetal anesthesia for late-term abortions.
Background
Most people agree that a fetus has the capacity to suffer at some point. If a fetus has the capacity to suffer, then we ought to reduce that suffering when possible. Fetal anesthesia is standard practice for fetal surgery,[1] but I am unaware of it ever being used during late-term abortions. If the fetus can suffer, these procedures likely cause the fetus extreme pain.
I think the cultural environment EAs usually live in tends to minimize concern for fetal suffering. Some worry that promoting care for fetal welfare will play into the hands of abortion opposers. However, as Brian Tomasik has pointed out, one can certainly support abortion as an option while recognizing the potential for fetal consciousness during late-term abortion procedures.
Surgical Abortion Procedures
LI (Labor Induction)[2]
Gestational age: 20+ weeks.
Method: The fetus is administered a lethal injection with no anesthesia, often of potassium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest and death within a minute.
The Human Rights Watch calls the use of potassium chloride for the death penalty without anesthesia "excruciatingly painful" because it "inflames the potassium ions in the sensory nerve fibers, literally burning up the veins as it travels to the heart."[3] The American Veterinary Medical Association considers the use of potassium chloride without anesthesia "unacceptable" when euthanizing vertebrate animals.[4]
D&E (Dilation and Evacuation)[5]
Gestational age: 13-24 weeks.
Method: The fetus's limbs are torn off before the fetus's head is crushed. The procedure takes several minutes.
When Can a Fetus Suffer?
The traditional view of fetal sentience has been that "the cortex and intact thalamocortical tracts," which develop after 24 weeks, "are necessary for pain experience."[6] However, mounting evidence of suffering from adults with disabled cortices and animals without cortices has cast doubt on the traditional view.[7] "Overall, the evidence, and a balanced reading of that evidence, points towards an immediate and unreflective pain experience mediated by the developing function of the nervous
system from as early as 12 weeks."[8] 12 weeks is when the first projections are made into the fetus's cortical subplate,[9] which will eventually grow into the cortex.
I am a layperson who doesn't have the expertise to evaluate these studies. However, I don't see a good reason to have substantially less concern for 24+ week fetuses than for infants. Though the arguments for 12-24 week fetuses are weaker, it still seems plausible that they have some capacity to suffer. Given the potential scale of fetal suffering due to late-term abortions, it seems that this evidence is worth seriously examining.
Scale in US and UK
2021 UK[10]
The following is a selection from the UK abortion data tables:
7a: Weeks from Gestation
13 to 14
15 to 19
20+
Total Abortions
5,322
5,528
2,686
D&E (%)
25%
74%
44%
LI with surgical evacuation (%)
0%
1%
18%
LI with medical evacuation (%)
0%
0%
20%
Assuming the given percentages are exact, this gives us:
Abortion Procedure
Abortions per Year (UK)
D&E
6,603
LI
1,076
2020 USA[11]
36,531 surgical abortions at >13 weeks and 4,382 abortions at 21 weeks were reported.
In 2021 UK, 38% of the 20 we...