Foetal Pain - Latest Report From The Department Of Health

EDM number 1380 in 1994-95, proposed by David Alton on 11/07/1995.

That this House welcomes the publication of Foetal Pain: An Update of Current Scientific Knowledge by Dr Maria Fitzgerald; notes the evidence summarised by the report that foetuses feel pain and that they may lack inhibitors and pain thresholds present in children and adults; agrees with Dr Fitzgerald's conclusion 'that the foetal nervous system mounts clear protective responses to tissue injury and this cannot be ignored'; welcomes her recommendation that 'the effects of trauma of any kind to the developing nervous system should be minimised as far as possible by whatever means are available'; and calls on the Department of Health to disseminate this information to medical staff and mothers and come forward with proposals for avoiding pain in pre-term foetal surgery and abortion.

This motion has been signed by a total of 13 MPs.