Reply To: Involuntary harms to the fight for newborns’ analgesia, by Bellieni CV, Buonocore G

I thank Bellieni and Buonocore (ref) for their opinion and commentary on the topic of dissociating the terms pain and nociception from each other. I agree with the authors that the definitions I propound would equally apply to the fetus and to the newborn. I also acknowledge of not knowing at what precise time in the maturation of the child consciousness comes about. Thus, I cannot assert when subjectivity emerges and with it the perception of pain. The concept I have proposed is rather simple and stems from the fact that everyday behavior is most of the time devoid of injuries as well as of pain, but this behavior must underlie un- or sub-conscious nociceptive signaling that protects the organism from injuries.

from The Journal of Pain http://bit.ly/2slaZsC
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