Criticism of US fetal pain study escalates

A study on fetal pain has raised questions about the way journals investigate potential conflicts of interest after it was exposed that one of the authors had worked for a pro-choice organisation and a second had ties to a clinic that offers abortions.

In the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2005;24: 947-54), five authors at the University of California, San Francisco, concluded that a fetus …