I think the underlying factor in these questions is the classic “problem of pain.” People think that something is right or wrong based on if someone is hurting, rather than seeing pain as a natural part of life which we need to learn how to deal with. That is not at all to say that I am against medical pain suppressants (I had a dental appointment not too long ago, during which I was thanking God the whole time for making people smart enough to make drugs so I couldn’t feel what the dentist was doing), but I think people no longer consider pain to be a part of life. Man can overcome nature to the point where pain does not have to exist.
The studies which have shown that the fetus feels pain have helped in people realizing it is actually a baby. People changed medicine from being about preserving life to avoiding pain. If the pain is deemed “unbearable”, then it should be stopped by any means necessary, such as in some assisted suicide cases and the patients who think that embryonic stem cells will heal all wounds. In today’s culture, Pain trumps Life.
One of the very interesting things about the Christian faith is that is specifically addresses the question of human suffering through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Pain is acknowledged in other faiths, but not in the same way and to the same extent as in Christianity.
