Newborns Feel Pain

New York Times. Wednesday, 29 May 1996.

Alan Meyers

Letters to the Editor Section

To the Editor:

I was surprised by Rabbi Eugene J. Cohen's statement (letter, May 25) that neurologists have assured us that because the baby's nervous system is undeveloped at the time of circumcision, he cannot feel pain.

Recent studies like those reviewed in the Aug. 25, 1994, New England Journal of Medicine, using physiologic measures of distress (for example, heart rate and oxygen saturation), have dispelled this scientifically unfounded notion and demonstrated that the youngest infants do feel pain. Pediatricians have responded by changing their practice and using anesthetics for painful procedures, even in premature newborns.

ALAN MEYERS, MD.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Boston U. School of Medicine
Boston, May 25, 1996

Citation:

Alan Meyers. Newborns Feel Pain. New York Times. 1996-05-29

Back to the News 1996 page.

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