From what I understand the “pain system” ( spino- thalamic ) begins to develop at 7 weeks. As it develops into more weeks the pain system would get stronger. But to say there is no pain at 7 weeks when it is in the first development stage would be hard to determine. Or prove unless you where the actual embryo and could say.. So I think yes. If the spino thalamic is developing at 7 weeks. I would say there could be a certain amount of pain.

I don't think that embryos being used for stem cells are at 7 weeks gestation, are they? I really don't know.

That's a good question Silly. I tried to find a site that told at what stage stem cells are taken and I can not find at what gestation time they are taken.

I will keep looking. If anymore finds the answer, please post.

After about five days of development, the embryo consists of a ball of 50 to 100 cells called a blastocyst. Embryonic stem cells are derived from an inner cell mass within the blastocyst. The blastocyst is no bigger than a grain of sand and its cells have no fixed destiny. There is no trace of any structure such as a nervous system which would, for example, produce sensations of pain.
Sounds like the cells are taken at a very early stage. Knowing that, I would say there is no pain envolved. But From what I have read the embyro dies. Is this true?

I should imagine so and even if the procedure didn't kill it then it would be destroyed afterwards because embryos for implantation are not used.

Embryo's used in ESCR can not be experimented upon after 16 days.

embryos are not "taken" but created especially.

embryos are kept frozen for upto a year after experimentation and then destroyed(killed)

to our understanding of the embryo regarding what makes more developed human beings feel pain the embryo is lacking the ability - however we simply do not know beyond that understanding if pain can be felt via some other unknown means.

Scientists do know who can or cannot feel pain to a much greater degree of certainty than it would appear is being discussed here.

The way scientists have learned over the years what parts of the brain do is by people that have had traumatic brain injury. When a person comes to the hospital with a certain part of his/her brain injured, the scientists take note as to which functions the person can no longer do.

For example, has the person lost their short term memory? So, after hundreds of cases of the same part of the brain being injured and people losing their short term memory, scientists concluded that brain part x (the part injured in all of the patients) was involved/needed for short term memory.

(Short term memory is, for example, what you use when trying to remember a phone number.)


This is also how they know what brain parts are needed to feel pain. A fetus cannot feel/experience pain until very, very late in development, when the brain is almost completely formed, in the third trimester, at about 26 weeks.

The problem is defining pain. Pain is a signal sent to the brain that some organs are not working properly or are damaged. The signal is than felt as pain by the consciousness.

Now, what is pain; the signal, or the sensation?

Fetal Pain

Pain is an emotional and

psychological experience that requires

conscious recognition of a noxious

stimulus. Consequently, the capacity

for conscious perception of pain can

arise only after thalamocortical

pathways begin to function, which

may occur in the third trimester

around 29 to 30 weeks’ gestational

age, based on the limited data

available. Small-scale histological

studies of human fetuses have found

that thalamocortical fibers begin to

form between 23 and 30 weeks’

gestational age, but these studies did

not specifically examine

thalamocortical pathways active in

pain perception.