{"id":98233,"date":"2016-07-29T15:29:34","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T19:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=98233"},"modified":"2016-07-29T18:32:46","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T22:32:46","slug":"ama-refuses-to-retract-demonstrably-false-report-on-fetal-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/ama-refuses-to-retract-demonstrably-false-report-on-fetal-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"AMA refuses to retract “demonstrably false” report on fetal pain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(The Daily Signal<\/a>)\u00a0The American Medical Association is sticking by its influential report asserting that unborn babies cannot feel pain at 20 weeks, despite subsequent studies finding otherwise. Three of the report\u2019s five authors had or later would have ties to the abortion industry.<\/p>\n

The Journal of the American Medical Association defended the report and declined a pro-life research group\u2019s request for a retraction. However, the AMA publication\u2019s top editor recently said the study wasn\u2019t presented as the definitive, final word on the issue of fetal pain.<\/p>\n

But despite its being 11 years old, mainstream media outlets such as\u00a0The\u00a0New York Times<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/a>\u00a0cited the study as authoritative in the recent debate over banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.<\/p>\n

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also has\u00a0cited<\/a>\u00a0the study during the debate over banning late-term abortions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe paper\u2019s central argument is demonstrably false,\u201d said\u00a0James Agresti, president of\u00a0Just Facts<\/a>, a fact-checking think tank that focuses on researching and publishing verifiable information about public policy issues.<\/p>\n

The authors of the American Medical Association\u2019s 2005 analysis argued that a developing human cannot feel pain until the cerebral cortex is fully formed. The cerebral cortex is the brain\u2019s outermost layer, which produces the ability to think and reason. The\u00a0AMA\u00a0report says<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Pain perception requires conscious recognition or awareness of a noxious stimulus. Neither withdrawal reflexes nor hormonal stress responses to invasive procedures prove the existence of fetal pain, because they can be elicited by nonpainful stimuli and occur without conscious cortical processing. \u2026 Evidence regarding the capacity for fetal pain is limited but indicates that fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At least two other studies,\u00a0one in 2006<\/a>\u00a0by the journal Pain: Clinical Updates, and\u00a0one in 2012<\/a>\u00a0by researchers at the department of\u00a0anesthesiology at the University Hospitals Gasthuisberg in Belgium, concluded the opposite, determining the development of a cortex is not necessary for an unborn baby to feel pain.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, in a\u00a0June 14 letter<\/a>, Howard Bauchner, editor in chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association, told Agresti that after a review the publication\u2019s editors decided not to retract the 2005 article on the study.<\/p>\n

The authors, Bauchner argued, \u201chave included modifiers that reflect their review of the evidence available at the time, including uncertainty.\u201d He added: \u201cAlthough subsequently published reports may add to existing evidence on a topic, or propose alternative theories, that new information does not require retraction of previous review articles.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least three of the five authors were involved or continue to be involved in the abortion industry:<\/p>\n