RE HB 3512

Honorable Co-Chair Barker, Co-Chair Krieger, Co-Vice Chair Garrett, Co-Vice Chair
Hicks, and Committee members,

Thank you for hearing my concerns today. I am in favor of HB 3512.

We must always seek to understand our children and whenever possible to prevent their
suffering.

It is difficult at best to determine how much other humans suffer. We have great
difficulty in quantifying the intensity. Therefore we must consider if it is possible for a
child to be in pain. Is the child able to take in information, process it and react? If we
can find a way to alleviate pain, shouldn't we do it?

I have attached a study done on the topic of fetal/infant child consciousness and the
perception of pain: “Developing consciousness: fetal anesthesia and analgesia by
Roland Brusseau, MD, and Laura Myers, MD”. The study goes over in quite detail the
development of the neurological system of a developing baby. It shows that it is possible
for the child to feel pain at least by age 20 weeks post conception. This is so profound
that is is considered inappropriate medical judgment to withhold analgesics if this same
child must have in vitro surgery.

Pain experienced by the child in the third trimester of development, may be heightened
and even be greater than that of an adult per page 5 of the study. This is found toward
the bottom of the right had side of the page. It states that because of the track by which
serotnin travels is not completely developed until several days after birth.

Dr. Steven Zielinski, an internal medicine physician from our own beloved state of
Oregon, is one of the leading researchers into this subject. He first published reports in
the 1980s to validate research show evidence for the fetus to experience pain. He has
testified before Congress that an unborn child could feel pain at “eight-and-a-half weeks
and possibly earlier” and that a baby before birth “under the right circumstances, is
capable of crying.”

Dr. Vincent J. Collins states: “Functioning neurological structures necessary for pain
sensation are in place as early as 8 weeks, but certainly by 13 1/2 weeks of gestation.
Sensory nerves, including nociceptors, reach the skin of the fetus before the 9th week of
gestation. The first detectable brain activity occurs in the thalamus between the 8th and
10th weeks. The movement of electrical impulses through the neural fibers and spinal
column takes place between 8 and 9 weeks gestation. By 13 1/2 weeks, the entire
sensory nervous system functions as a whole in all parts of the body,” Collins, before his
death, was Professor of Anesthesiology at Northwestern University and the University of
Illinois and author of Principles of Anesthesiology, one of the leading medical texts on
the control of pain.

We would conclude that these children are capable of experiencing pain. We must act
appropriately and take care to not cause further damage or cause suffering. This bill will
provide for the guidance in the protection of these children from suffering and enlighten
their mothers to the best response in their care of their growing baby.

Thank you for considering my remarks.

Janice Dysinger
32235 SE Pipeline Rd.
Gresham, OR 97080
503 757 0670