EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)
“The Scale of Fetal Suffering in Late-Term Abortions” by Ariel Simnegar
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 [...]
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Outline:
(00:40) Background
(01:28) Surgical Abortion Procedures
(01:34) LI (Labor Induction)
(02:18) DandE (Dilation and Evacuation)
(02:38) When Can a Fetus Suffer?
(03:46) Scale in US and UK
(03:50) 2021 UK
(04:05) 2020 USA
(05:02) Interventions
The original text contained 11 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.
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First published:
March 17th, 2024
Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
