Professor Fergal Malone:

Not any more. We would use the term "miscarriage". We would be sensitive to that. In other countries, and in some textbooks, "spontaneous abortion" is a term that is used. It is synonymous with miscarriage. Most people here do not like to use that term and prefer to use the term "miscarriage".

The Deputy asked a very pertinent question, which was when central nervous system, CNS, development occurs in the foetus. About two years ago, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists convened a working group, bringing together various neurologists and physiologists, to specifically examine that. It was about the sense of pain and when a foetus might feel pain and it was clear from the consensus among a wide range of disciplines that that does not occur before 24 weeks and is probably closer to 30 weeks. It is a mistake to assume that just because an ex-25 week foetus in the neonatal intensive care unit can show signs of feeling pain that the same 25-week foetus in uterowill feel pain. That is a very different environment and the consensus from that working group was that it is certainly beyond 24 weeks gestation, if not closer to 30 weeks.