7. Serving as the predominant medical opinion for almost one hundred years, it was not until 1985 the belief infant humans could not feel pain was finally debunked
Prior to the late-19th century, babies were widely considered to possess greater pain sensitivity than adults, with Felix Würtz reasoning in 1656 “if a new in skin old people be tender, what is it you think in a newborn Babe?” However, from the late-19th-century medical opinion had shifted, with incoming medical practitioners trained with an understanding that infants could not, in fact, feel pain at all. Believing that pain was reflexive, and with the immature development of a newborn’s brain, it quickly became accepted fact pain was an experience beyond the range of a baby and thus anesthesia, muscle relaxants, and pain relief were unnecessary to the treatment of infants.
It was not until 1985 this opinion was finally challenged, when infant Jeffrey Lawson underwent open heart surgery. Discovering her son had been operated upon without anesthesia, Jill Lawson initiated a public campaign which spawned several independent medical studies. Concluding in only a couple of years the received opinion was entirely false, these studies measured the pain of young children and determined it could evidently be felt. In fact, studies have since shown infants feel far more pain than an adult, with inadequate treatment to moderate the immense agony endured capable of causing long-term psycho-physiological harm to children.
