The Fetal Pain Scandal :: Life Issues

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August 24, 2005

The Fetal Pain Scandal

The news media are in a feeding frenzy today reporting on a "study" (actually, a re-interpretation of existing medical literature) published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association. The authors claim that there is no substantial reason to believe that unborn humans feel pain before the third trimester (after 29 weeks gestational age). Most of these stories have failed to report important information about the study "investigators".

The lead author, Susan J. Lee, is a medical student and former NARAL employee, and one of the physician authors, Eleanor Drey, is the director of an abortion clinic in San Francisco [more here and here]. Dr. Drey is also on the staff of the Center for Reproductive Health Research and Policy, a pro-abortion advocacy center at the University of California-San Francisco.

What's more, these affiliations were not disclosed to JAMA!

JAMA editor-in-chief Catherine D. DeAngelis told the the Philadelphia Inquirer, "This is the first I've heard about it. We ask them to reveal any conflict of interest. I would have published" the disclosure if it had been made.

Updates:

Debated on Abortion Fetal Pain Study Continues

No Fetal Pain in Abortion? Look Again

Posted by tim at August 24, 2005 1:21 PM

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