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Both Alabama and Missouri (the state in which your present author resides), have recently passed individual heart-beat bills, legislation designed to restrict the legal window for an abortion to 8 weeks, or when a fetal heartbeat is first detectable. A period of time during which most women are not even aware they are pregnant.
While these bills claim to “protect the lives of unborn children”, they actually do little to protect the lives of conscious individuals born or unborn. Such legislation can do great harm to children and adults who are living in these states, especially because neither of these particular bills makes an exception for victims of rape or incest.
While abortion has been a hot-button political topic for decades, it is important that legislators don’t base these decisions on their personal opinions or what they believe to be the opinion of their voting district. Rather, we should always strive to look at what we know scientifically when debating an ethical controversy.
Recently this blog provided an analysis of the world’s most advanced neuromorphic supercomputers, machines that attempt to simulate segments of the human brain. In the article, we were able to demonstrate mathematically how extremely complex the brain really is by considering the resources that would be necessary for a complete simulation.
By contrast, the neuronal complexity of a fetus with a heartbeat could be easily simulated by one of these machines. Indeed, much more complex regions of the adult-human brain have already been simulated in such neuromorphic computers and certainly do not qualify as conscious beings or anything comparable.
We would of course like to speak more quantitatively about consciousness in the various stages of development however. While this is not something we can achieve with precision today, theories such as Giulio Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory (IIT) could potentially serve this purpose in the future. But for the present time, neuroscience already tells us a great deal about the embryonic brain and it’s functional capabilities.
For example, beginning at the ninth-week of a pregnancy, the embryo becomes a fetus (though still weighting less than a single ounce). At this stage, it will be at least another month before presenting the slightest indication of consciousness, such as sensory development or a discernible response toward the mother’s voice. In comparison many animals subject to human hunting and consumption, such as pigs and deer, display quite obvious indicators of consciousness (i.e., reflexive and responsive behavior) and achieve a far greater level of neuronal complexity than that of a fetus at this stage.
While these and other facts cement an ethical basis for the abortion of a first-term fetus, I do believe it is in the best interest of both science and politics to refrain from introducing the discussion of late-term abortions until a comprehensive theory of consciousness such as IIT can appropriately discriminate unconscious systems from conscious ones. I say this because the above arguments can no longer be expected to hold true when the discussion diverges from the abortion of a mid-term fetus to infanticide.
By the end of the second trimester, the learning capacity, and hence, consciousness can be expected to be in a period of rapid development, thus subjecting a fetal-abortion to a greater degree of moral condemnation. This is true regardless of whether the fetus is qualitatively self-aware. It is therefore reasonable that this period be considered the legal boundary of abortions until the science catches up with the debate.
The so-called pro-life movement however does not seem interested in recognizing any of these facts. Emphasizing that “life begins at conception”, a true statement to be sure! However (and I cannot stress this enough), the ethical deliberation of fetal-abortion regards consciousness, not life. Otherwise, we would be forced to consider life-saving medical procedures such as the removal of a cancerous tumor, violent acts of homicide, simply because they involve the termination of a living organism.
In conclusion, it is clear the first trimester is a period of development when a fetus is far from achieving a significant mental capacity. As such, this period (12 weeks) should remain the indissoluble standard of a mother’s choice in carrying her pregnancy to term. And it can be expected that future research into consciousness will clarify the moral dilemma of aborting a fetus during the second trimester. Unfortunately, as of today we simply do not have the data to make such determinations scientifically, thereby punting the ethical burden onto the conscience of individuals, and of course, that of our legislative and judicial systems.
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Brief Histories: The Quantum Zeno Effect |
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