Before undertaking or legalising a procedure people should be fully informed of its nature. With abortion it is essential to examine the nature of the being most closely affected - the unborn child.

1. Foetus or Child?

"Foetus" is simply the Latin word for "young" or "offspring". It is used medically to describe the unborn child from the eighth week of development, before which the term "embryo" is used. It does not make the embryo different from the rest of the human race: indeed, the expression "human foetus" and "human pre-implantation embryo" are used by researchers to state the difference between the unborn child and the offspring of laboratory animals.

When a woman has an abortion the doctors will often refer to her baby as 'the contents of the womb' or a 'blob of jelly' etc. A woman who chooses abortion is not given the facts about the development of her child in the womb.

2. Fertilisation

When sperm fertilises egg all the inherited features of the new baby are decided - hair/eye/skin colour, sex, build. Each new life is different from any other ever conceived. The embryo is specifically human (it cannot develop into any other species), and begins to organise itself at once, to carry out the instructions in its DNA code. It is complete, unique, human and alive.

Human development is a continuous process that begins when an ovum from a female is fertilised by a sperm from a male" (K L Moore, The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology, W B Saunders, 1988). The procedure of in vitro fertilisation, where life begins in the laboratory dish, shows that the embryo is never a "part of the mother's body". Even some of the experiments performed on embryos under 14 days old - attempting to establish their sex and health - show that individuality exists from fertilisation.

3. The first Two Months

Measuring time from conception (fertilisation), growth of the embryo is as follows:

Day 6-12:	implantation into the womb occurs
Day 24-28:	the head is distinct, limb buds are visible; the early eyes, liver, brain, pancreas, lungs and kidneys are present and the heart is beating. The embryo is 4mm long (crown-rump length)
Day 32-34:	ear development, nostrils and shaping of the limbs are apparent
Day 44-46:	fingers and toes are distinct, the external ears are well advanced in form and the eyelids have almost covered the eyes. The embryo is 25-27mm long (crown-rump length)
By Week 6:	the skeleton is formed in cartilage
Week 7:	the first movements can be seen on ultrasound
By Week 8:	parts of the skull, the ribs and the skeletal limb cartilages are turning to bone
At the end of week 8 the embryonic period is complete and the foetal period begins. (Marjorie England, A Colour Atlas of Life Before Birth Normal Foetal Development, Wolfe Medical Publications, 1990, and Dr John McClean, former Senior Lecturer in Embryology and Anatomy, University of Manchester.)



4. The Third Month

"Nine weeks after conception the baby is well enough formed for him to bend his fingers round an object in the palm of his hand. In response to a touch on the sole of his foot he will curl his toes or bend his hips and knees to move away from the touching object."

"At 11 weeks after conception the foetus starts to swallow the surrounding amniotic fluid and to pass it back in his urine. He can also produce complex facial expressions and even smile."

"At 12 weeks he can close his fingers and thumb and will open his mouth in response to pressure applied at the base of the thumb."
(H B Valman and J F Pearson, "What the Foetus Feels", British Medical Journal, 26 January 1980.)

5. From Four to Six Months

"…The inner ear of the foetus is completely developed by mid-pregnancy and the foetus responds to a wide variety of sounds."

"The foetus needs to be heavily sedated by sedating the mother before intrauterine manipulations such as blood transfusions. Otherwise he will move away from the needle."
(Valman and Pearson, op. Cit.)

The unborn child also responds to maternal shock. Professor Peter Hepper, Director of the Foetal Behaviour Centre at Queen's University, Belfast, found that a 16-week-old unborn baby reacted when the mother accidentally fell on the floor when attending for a routine ultrasound scan. The baby's increased activity was seen on ultrasound and believed to be a direct effect of maternal shock.
(The Lancet, 27 October 1990)

6. From Six to Nine Months

Professor Hepper has also reported that newborn babies whose mothers watched the soap opera "Neighbours" when they were pregnant stopped crying when they heard the tune. Babies of mothers who did not watch it had no reaction. Hepper pointed to a study by DeCasper and Spence (1986) who found that newborns reacted to stories mothers had read to them during pregnancy. The evidence shows that unborn babies can learn and remember sounds.

More recently Professor Hepper has developed a test for the mental ability of the foetus in the womb. The tests can be used on babies as young as 24 weeks, but might be used earlier in pregnancy in the future. So far the tests have predicted intelligence accurately.
(British Psychological Society Annual Meeting, April 1995, reported in The Daily Telegraph and The Independent, 4 April 1995)

Physically the mother will have noticed her baby kicking in the womb from 17-20 weeks. The baby is active well before this time but is too small for the mother to feel. By 20 weeks the baby is 185mm long (crown-rump length); eyelids, eyebrows and fingernails are very well developed. The eyes are closed from week 9 or 10 until week 25 or 26 for protection. In late pregnancy the baby's skin is covered by a greasy substance (vernix), which protects it from prolonged contact with the amniotic fluid. He or she also develops an insulating layer of fat under the skin and develops resistance to some infections.

7. Premature Birth

Some babies are born early, but with the right care they may survive.

The European Community study on babies born between 22 and 28 weeks gestation (20 to 26 weeks from fertilisation) noted that more babies survived at 22 weeks in the United Kingdom (regions of Scotland and England were studied) and survival rates were higher than in other countries surveyed.

Twelve percent of all babies born need some level of special care at birth (about 80,000) and 2.5% of all babies born need some level of neonatal intensive care (about 17,000).

Babies born at 23 weeks have a 17 per cent chance of survival
Babies born at 24 weeks have a 39 per cent chance of survival
Babies born at 25 weeks have a 50 per cent chance of survival
Twenty years ago, approx 20% of babies weighing less than 1,000gms (2lb 2oz) at birth survived. Nowadays, about 80% survive. (www.bliss.org.uk)

8. Can the Foetus Feel Pain?

There is a great debate among doctors and scientists about wunborn babies actually begin to feel and experience pain. The brain cells that make us aware of feeling pain are found in unborn children 10 weeks after conception and human embryos have been seen to pull away from touch as early as five weeks after conception. The full connections of the various parts of the brain however are not complete until 26 weeks and so some believe that the foetus cannot feel pain before then. (2005 The Life Information Charitable Trust. www.life.org.nz )

Most doctors and scientists now believe that the foetus can feel pain before 26 weeks.
For example:
“Functioning neurological structures necessary for pain sensation are in place as early as eight weeks, but certainly by 14 weeks. By 14 weeks, the entire sensory nervous system functions as a whole in all parts of the body (except in the skin or the back of the head).”(V. Collins, S. Zielinski and T. Marzen, “Fetal Pain and Abortion: the Medical Evidence”, Studies in Law and Medicine, No 18, 1984. V. Collins is Professor of Anaesthesiology at the University of Illinois)
In 1999 the British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology too stated: "Given the anatomical evidence, it is possible that the foetus can feel pain from 20 weeks, and is caused distress by interventions from as early as 15 - 16 weeks."

The nerve fibres which send pain impulses to the brain are also present before the fibres which reduce pain are working - so the early foetus may suffer more pain.
(Peter McCullagh, The Foetus as Transplant Donor, John Wiley & Sons, 1987)

This was confirmed by M Fitzgerald of University College London, in research published in Nature (9 April 1987, Vol 326, p 603) and reported in New Scientist magazine (7 May 1987).

"One interesting feature of a foetus's sensory neurons which emerged from this study is that they appear to be more sensitive than those of the adult or newborn baby…because foetal sensory neurons are so sensitive, higher levels of stimulation than those in the uterus may be harmful."

Researchers have also measured stress hormones given out by the baby in the womb when blood samples are taken. They argue that painkillers should be given to unborn babies during surgery:

"This applies not just to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures on the foetus, but possibly also to termination of pregnancy, especially by surgical techniques involving dismemberment."
(Giannakoulopoulos, Fisk et al, Lancet July 9 1994, vol 344, p 77)

SPUC Scotland Paper 1
The Case Against Abortion
Revised June 2004

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