“The Scale of Fetal Suffering in Late-Term Abortions” by Ariel Simnegar

EA Forum Podcast (Curated & popular)

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

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vhKZ7hyzmcrWuBwDL/the-scale-of-fetal-suffering-in-late-term-abortions

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.