BoyNextDoor
I hate liars
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2010
- Posts
- 14,158
When they were wrestling with the issue of a person being able to have the liberty to determine their own health and wellness in Ireland, and amending their constitution to legalize abortion, the Irish Times had a lot of great articles. This is one of them.
The moment a baby’s brain starts to function, and other scientific answers on abortion
Nobody can say when an individual life begins, but the facts can help show when a life does not begin
There are not two views on abortion in Ireland. There are 4,803,748 different perspectives. In the weeks leading up to polling day, the Irish people have started from the ground up and the debate is now firmly in the parameters of “under what circumstances should abortion be available?”
Since last week, 1,500 Irish scientists – ranging from PhD students to Ireland’s only Nobel Laureate for the sciences – have signed a letter written by Scientists for Yes, summarizing our views on abortion.
\
Polarised referendum campaigns can stop people from listening and looking at the evidence. As we approach polling day, there are a number of pieces of evidence – social and scientific – that Scientists for Yes believe may be valuable, as the public come to their own conclusions:
When does consciousness begin? For most people it is a functioning brain that defines a human being, as this is where our thoughts, feelings, and conscious minds come from. Some people are concerned with abortions after six weeks of pregnancy because that is when a basic spinal cord and nervous system first develop, but it is not until week eight (six weeks post-fertilisation) that the first rudimentary brain activity – the kind that is observed in organisms as simple as insects – can be observed. The very beginnings of our higher brain structures only start to appear between weeks 12 and 16. Crucially, the co-ordinated brain activity required for consciousness does not occur until 24-25 weeks of pregnancy. We cannot say when consciousness first emerges, but it cannot rationally be called before the end of the second trimester at 24 weeks of pregnancy.
The moment a baby’s brain starts to function, and other scientific answers on abortion
Nobody can say when an individual life begins, but the facts can help show when a life does not begin
There are not two views on abortion in Ireland. There are 4,803,748 different perspectives. In the weeks leading up to polling day, the Irish people have started from the ground up and the debate is now firmly in the parameters of “under what circumstances should abortion be available?”
Since last week, 1,500 Irish scientists – ranging from PhD students to Ireland’s only Nobel Laureate for the sciences – have signed a letter written by Scientists for Yes, summarizing our views on abortion.
\
Polarised referendum campaigns can stop people from listening and looking at the evidence. As we approach polling day, there are a number of pieces of evidence – social and scientific – that Scientists for Yes believe may be valuable, as the public come to their own conclusions:
When does consciousness begin? For most people it is a functioning brain that defines a human being, as this is where our thoughts, feelings, and conscious minds come from. Some people are concerned with abortions after six weeks of pregnancy because that is when a basic spinal cord and nervous system first develop, but it is not until week eight (six weeks post-fertilisation) that the first rudimentary brain activity – the kind that is observed in organisms as simple as insects – can be observed. The very beginnings of our higher brain structures only start to appear between weeks 12 and 16. Crucially, the co-ordinated brain activity required for consciousness does not occur until 24-25 weeks of pregnancy. We cannot say when consciousness first emerges, but it cannot rationally be called before the end of the second trimester at 24 weeks of pregnancy.
