Siena, Italy, Jun 27, 2013 / 12:34 pm
An Italian doctor has clarified that fetuses may be capable of feeling pain and pleasure as early as 20 weeks after their conception, after a June 19 article in Time may have led some to believe otherwise.
The Time article quoted a paper co-authored by Carlo Bellieni, from the department of pediatrics, obstetrics and reproductive medicine at the University Hospital of Siena, which says there is "consistent evidence of the possibility for the fetus to experience pain in the third trimester, and this evidence is weaker before this date and null in the first half of pregnancy."
Time used this quote to characterize Bellieni as having reported that "while it was difficult to truly determine when the first feelings of pain emerged, such sensations likely begin in the third trimester."
"But this can look like I said that the fetus doesn't feel pain in the second trimester at all," Bellieni told CNA June 24.