In message <553@clsib21.UUCP>, dave@clsib21.UUCP (David P. Hansen) writes:
[in his "deception" article]
>        I read the same news article... and right after Russ Cage so
>        confidently said that the "fetus" shows no "feelings" before
>        7 months. (Where do you get your info from Russ? I'm glad I
>        don't take you seriously!))
[much deleted]
>Russ Cage: Here is some FACTS (can you say that? Sure you can.) that my friend
>          the pediatrician supplied me with, I suggest you find some VALID
>          ones of your own if you wish to continue participating in this
>          news group without sounding like a total idiot.

Well, folks, I cannot resist such a challenge as this.  Dave Hansen has put
me on the spot, and John Morrow and Ray Frank have been bugging me as well.
So, supported by a team of archaeologists, I undertook a dig today in the
deposits left by the winds which picked up my abode some months ago and left
it at its current site, searching for the evidence I had gleaned before the
disaster struck.  The dig was successful.  Reproduced below is the verbatim
text of an article which appeared in the _Ann Arbor News_ on Saturday, Aug.
31 1985, under the headline "Documentary challenges claim of fetal pain".
I have endeavored to be 100% faithful to the original, including every quirk
of punctuation.  This article is reproduced under the "fair use" clause of the
US copyright law.  It is probably copyright (c) 1985 by the Los Angeles Times.

-----------------------------------Begin article-------------------------------
By ELIZABETH MEHREN
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

NEW YORK - Like millions of other Americans who watched the Jan. 22 edition
of "Nightline", Patricia Jaworski was mesmerized when she saw the first
segments of the now-famous anti-abortion film "The Silent Scream" to air
on national television.

Recalling how stunned she was to watch that actual sonogram depiction of
an actual abortion, Jaworski said, "It gets you on this real gut level."
But "at the same time," she added, "I knew it was wrong, because I had
the data."

For more than a year, independent producer Jaworski had been working on
the research for a documentary of her own, examining the intricacies of
fetal brain development.  The producer of nine earlier radio documentaries,
each dealing with some aspect of the brain, Jaworski had intended this
latest project to focus somehow on "the development of the brain with the
respect to the abortion issue."  Now, suddenly, she had a target.

"Thinking About the Silent Scream," Jaworski's half-hour documentary, was
heard for the first time in the New York area on Aug. 18, and three other
major New York radio stations had scheduled it for later in August.

Presented in a straightforward, non-emotional fashion, the show centers on
interviews with four leading brain researchers from around the country,
as well as with scientist-science-fiction author Isaac Asimov.  One of
the show's primary goals is to refute the suggestion made in "The Silent
Scream" that a 12-week-old fetus "feels pain."

"Does the brain even exist at conception?" narrator Jaworski asks early
in the broadcast.

"No!!!" shoots back Dr. Michael Bennett, chairman of the neuroscience
department at New York's Albert Einstein School of Medicine.

"Can there be a person without a brain?" Jaworski inquires.

"No, no way," replies Bennett.  "You can't be a person without a brain,
you can't be a dog without a brain, you can't be a cat without a brain
or a chicken without a brain."

Though her documentary did turn out to be a rebuttal to "The Silent
Scream," Jaworski admits she was uncertain which way her research would
lead her when she began the project.

But to a person, Jaworski's "impeccably credentialed, leading edge"
scientists concurred that "there are no brain neurons prior to four weeks
of fetal development.  They contend that the cerebral cortex, the portion
of the brain needed for thought, feelings and conscious awareness, is the
last part of the brain to fully develop."

In fact, asserts neurologist and neuroscientist Dr. Dominick Purpura, former
dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, and current dean at
Albert Einstein School of Medicine, before the 28th week of development
the cortex lacks sufficient axons, dendrites and synapses to sustain the
processes of thought, feeling and awareness the documentary deems necessary
for "personhood."

"We're putting the boundary condition, a limit, the minimal time for
personhood to begin," Purpura says.  "It's not three months, it's not
two months, it's seven months."

While clearly controversial, Jaworski's documentary is important, WCBS-radio
public affairs director Ellen Miller said, because "it's a scientific piece.
It's not done emotionally."  Her station will "invite pro-life people, we're
not sure when," to present their side of the issue sometime after "Thinking
About 'The Silent Scream'" airs.

"This is an issue of concern to the public," Miller said, "and radio has
an obligation to present issues of public interest."
-----------------------------------End article-------------------------------

Here are your facts.  You will note that they include:

--      Documentation of my claims.
--      Names of researchers and their credentials.
--      Information on where the article can be found, so you can
        check for yourself.

Anti-abortion posters should note that not one shred of opposition to the
claims made was found among top researchers, who presumably know more
about the field than anyone else; indeed, the data came from them.

Messrs. Frank, Morrow and Hansen, does this collection of facts satisfy
you as to my bona fides?
--
  The above are the official opinions and figures of Robust Software, Inc.
HASA, "A+" division.                     Go ahead, flame.  I bought Dow stock!
Russ Cage, Robust Software Inc.             ihnp4!itivax![m-net!rsi,crlt!russ]