Fetal Short-term Memory Found In 30-week-old Fetuses

[Shady]

Now in a new study from the Netherlands, scientists have found fetal short-term memory in fetuses at 30 weeks.

Link

Yet another nail in the coffin of abortion-on-demand. When will society step out of the dark ages, accept science, and realize this is human life?

I hope soon.

[Bonam]

What does the presence of memory have to do with abortion? Memory is found in a wide variety of lifeforms, including all mammals, many of which we slaughter in vast amounts on a continual basis.

[Shady]

What does the presence of memory have to do with abortion? Memory is found in a wide variety of lifeforms, including all mammals, many of which we slaughter in vast amounts on a continual basis.

Well, I don't accept your premise that an unborn child is tantamount to a cow, pig, chicken, or any other common farm animal.

[Guest TrueMetis]

When the legal cut-off for Abortion? Isn't it before 30 weeks?

Edited July 27, 2009 by TrueMetis

[Bonam]

Well, I don't accept your premise that an unborn child is tantamount to a cow, pig, chicken, or any other common farm animal.

I did not make such a statement nor do I have such a premise. Clearly, human fetuses and embryos are not the same as the animals you listed. That being said, memory is a shared trait of all of these forms of life. Why, then, do you seek to use the presence of memory as an argument against abortion? Perhaps if you could find some distinctly human cognitive attribute, that is found in no other species, and demonstrate that this attribute is also manifested in humans at the fetal stage, your argument would hold some weight. But memory is not such an attribute.

[noahbody]

When the legal cut-off for Abortion? Isn't it before 30 weeks?

24 weeks appears to be the norm, unless the mother's life is in danger.

[kimmy]

yeeaaahhh... I don't think there's a lot of "abortion on demand" of 30-week-old fetuses, so I don't think this is exactly the nail in the coffin Shady was hoping for. By 30 weeks the fetus can likely survive premature birth, so it's not terribly surprising that it has memory by this stage.

But there's still those photos of happy little fetuses sucking their thumbs and waving to the camera. Stick with those, Shady, they'll get you farther.

-k