Can a Fetus Feel Pain?

This is one of those rare circumstances where both doctors whose quotes you've provided are correct in that no such legislation should be effectuated since there is no consensus as to whether a fetus can feel pain. I suspect that there will be no such consensus for a long while.

My mind is in a mental swirl to think we now have to try to figure out whether one in the womb feels pain.

Permit me an inexact analogy. Why the fight for abortion. It's really just an outdated technology. What would you think of someone fighting for the right to use the old cumbersom main frame computers instead of our new desktop PC's.

Yes, in history past, women were kept in servatude to pregnancy, often one right after the other. For years and years and years, women wanted the right to abortion to free them from this servatude. But then came birth control pills, the new technology to prevent pregnancy, much easier then terminating it. The real tool to set of women free.

But like a snowball rolling downhill picking up momentum, the old technology, abortion got it's day in court. And, somehow it has won the spotlight rather than pregancy prevention.

Women, let's get responsible and get a prenancy preventative, the new technology. And forget about the right to abortion, which has become the right of irresponsibility. Then this article will become irrelevant for the most part.

Yes, there will be times when abortions are necessary or useful. We have all heard it before, the life of the mother, rape, incest, etc. and that right has always existed. But that is not what the majority of abortions are.

Ned Potter, where are you? I hope you're only on vacation and you'll be back to blog. I miss reading your wonderful pieces!

I wonder if you or any of the regular participants here (Chuck, where are *you*?) will even see this comment attached to a piece almost two weeks old. . . .

A couple of stories today I'd love to see you write more about:

Songbirds May Be Able to Learn Grammar:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1894626

This subject fascinates me. Do you know whether similar studies have been considered with dolphins and whales? As I understand it, whales do change their songs from year to year, adding new phrases. And might it tell us more if studies were conducted with gorillas and chimpanzees using sign language? Granted, it's not the same as their own vocalizations, but it might give us more insight into how their brains process variations in language.

Another story I'd like to see you write more about - today's bleak assessment of how ill-equipped we are to handle a flu pandemic:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1894883

What else do you think could be done? I read recently that the U.S. has only 5000 hospitals. Was that a typo, or is the number really so low? It's hard to see how 5000 hospitals can serve even the day-to-day needs of 290 million of us. Since the forecast of either a pandemic or a biological attack seems to be a matter of "when" rather than "if," wouldn't it serve us well to focus on building and staffing more hospitals? What would that take?

Hoping to see you back here soon, Ned!

Where in the world *IS* Ned Potter??? 1.5 weeks and no new posts! I hope it IS just a matter that he's on vacation! (And what? No "guest" blogger to take his place???)

I echo Jill's comments... I miss reading something NEW on this blog!!!

Another story I'd LOVE to see further expounded on by Ned is this one:

Inventions Get Elderly and Disabled Moving
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1892996&page=1

Dean Kamen did wonders with the iBot (not to be confused with Apple's iPod)... But I can't believe it's so PRICEY! Over $26,000 for a wheelchair--albeit a "smart" one?? That's the price of a CAR! You'd think someone somewhere would be able to make it CHEAPER!

But in the above story (so ably done by Mr. Silverstein), the Japanese are pushing the envelope further with robotic LEGS for those who can't walk!

(And didn't the Army/DARPA experiment with something similar to help soldiers carry even MORE gear into combat?)

With developments like that, the increasing use of replacement body parts (made with high-tech alloys/plastics/polymers), ever-shrinking electronics so that they can be embedded into human tissue, ubiquitous real-time communication and wireless network connectivity.....

Yes, gentlemen, we have the technology to make humans stronger, faster, better..... (cue "Six Million Dollar Man" music).....

Redtech, I'm relieved to read your post. Last night I felt as if I might be talking only to myself!

I owe you an apology for not mentioning you along with Chuck in my post. I wanted to, but my brain spazzed when I tried to remember your nick without searching back through old posts. I've greatly enjoyed reading your comments here and your dialogue with Chuck and with Ned. I love the way Ned not only acknowledges his readers but converses with them! Let's hope he's back soon! (I'm not sure a "guest blogger" would do it for me. Ned seems so genuinely nice and interested in other people's ideas and so down to earth that I think he's irreplaceable.)

I'm with you about wanting to hear more about technology to help people with various disabilities!

I agree about the hefty price tag on the iBot. I also hope that it's a little more stable and foolproof than the Segway, after seeing Pres. Bush fall off the latter in full view of reporters. Seriously, I'd worry about a malfunction if an elderly or disabled person tried to go up and down stairs in an iBot, especially unattended. The concept, though, is really amazing.

I'm too much of an acrophobe to even THINK about those robotic legs! Maybe shorter ones could be developed . . .?! Did the military really experiment with using something like that to carry gear into combat? I hope they moved faster than the ones in the video accompanying Mr. Silverstein's piece!

I have a sister-in-law who's disabled with a vestibular disorder - severe and chronic vertigo which has had her in bed for over four years. Wheelchairs do her no good, since any motion makes her violently ill. She's only 34, and she's missing her kids' childhoods.

We recently found out about a device called a BrainPort, developed at the University of Wisconsin and now undergoing clinical trials, that may actually give her back her life. It looks essentially like a hard hat with something like a carpenter's level on the top. Electrodes attach to a pad which transmits information to the brain through the nerves in the tongue, and apparently those signals override the misfiring signals from the inner ear's balance sensors. The BEST part about it is that they've discovered that after it begins to work (which I guess takes some time), the effect LASTS for several hours, and sometimes even days. So patients with vestibular disorders only have to "recharge" themselves with this device for 20 minutes each day, and then they're good to go. Here's a link, where you can read about it, as well as research into other applications, such as restoring vision:

http://www.wicab.com/index.html

I gather there are estimates of several million people in this country who are completely disabled by vestibular disorders. Until now, they haven't received much attention, probably because they're so immobilized that they literally drop out of sight, and sometimes out of the health care system. In our family's eyes, the BrainPort is nothing short of a miracle. I hope my SIL is one of those who will be helped. (And I hope the price tag will be less than the iBot, and a WHOLE lot less than the Six Million Dollar Man!)

Jill, many thanks for your kind words! Redtech5, it's also great to see your latest posting! I HEARTILY second your comments and need to see some new reporting from the science front! All your suggestions for possible stories are definitely wothwhile, especially concerning the iBot and the BrainPort. Imagine the benefits of these devices for injured Iraq war veterans--this topic just begs to have a report done!

I've been visiting Ned's blog the past two weeks to see if he'd posted any new entries, but I just didn't check the comments under his last posting until today. It seems that Ned stopped writing about the same time that his colleague, Jake Tapper, decided to take some time off from his blog. I feel as if I've been abandoned! In any case, I think it appropriate to post the following plea, and hope that all the readers of Ned's blog will enthusiastically support me:

"Ned Potter, we miss you and want to know that you're all right! Is the absence of new entries to your blog due to your research of a report on black holes, one of which you approached too closely? Were you studying first-hand the melting of the polar icecaps and became stranded on a breakaway ice floe? Were you in the field immersed in the study of the grammar of songbirds and were carried off to a mountaintop by a enraged flock of them? Whatever the reason, if we don't hear from you soon, we'll be forced to contact the intrepid FBI agents on the television show "Without a Trace" (from "another network") to try to locate you! Please let us know that all is well!"

And a "hi" right back, Jill. (And no worries on not mentioning me... I don't pop in or comment as frequently as say, Chuck, my "long lost twin." ;-))

After I made that last post, I did some Googling and found these stories on the military's research into "lower extermity exoskeleton."

You can read about it here in New Scientist:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4750

or here by ABCNews science columnist, Lee Dye:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=99568&page=1

It probably wouldn't help your sister and her unfortunate condition, though. Still, you never know....

I'd imagine since this research was done over 2 years ago (by robotics researchers in UC Berkeley with funding from DARPA, the military's research arm) that they probably made (or could have made) a lot of advances. Add an upper body exention, some of those miniature laser gyros Kamen uses in his Segway, some form of "artificial muscle" or power, and a small notebook computer, and I bet someone with the right "smarts" and engineering background could make an "exo" that could help someone to walk!

And of course, there are a LOT of new developments in "walking" robots. Check out this freaky thing developed (again with help from DARPA) by a company called Boston Dynamics:

Big Dog:
http://www.bdi.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog

The video (which takes a while to load) of this thing walking just creeps me out! (Picture two people moving a long rectangular box... But it's just their LEGS at the bottom of the box!)

You can find a faster loading version of the movie here:
http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do?displayContent=94366

Anyway, I agree that Ned's a GREAT reporter and a swell guy. I, too, hope he comes back soon.

Still, you would think that ABC would have done SOMETHING with this space, rather than let it languish for TWO WHOLE WEEKS and leaviung us to wonder. They could have at least posted a message to say that Ned's out... and would it have been THAT hard to get someone to post SOMETHING new?

I would've voted for Lee Dye to fill-in. In a previous life, I've had the priviledge of working with this wonderful science writer and found his stuff to be FASCINATING and FUN to read. Check out his past columns here on ABCNews:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/

But alas, Mr. Dye hasn't posted a new "Dyehard" column since April 19!!! (IT's suppose to be a WEEKLY column?)

Makes you wonder if ABCNEWS is skimping on Science coverage. I hope it's not the case that ABC is cutting back because they need the money to PAY for Rosie O'Donnell! (See: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=1900849)

Oh Ned, where art thou?!?!?!?!

Chuck, it's good to see you back here, too! I can understand why you weren't checking for new comments under this particular post. It's not one of my favorite topics, so I don't think I'd have checked here, either. I posted here at first because I thought the most recent post might be most visible, at least to Ned. However, considering the turn our conversation has taken, I had an unsettling head movie as I scrolled down just now, juxtaposing bionic parts with the topic of Ned's post. Er, I think I'll continue the discussion under the next post down ("The End of Lightbulbs?"), if you gentlement don't mind following!