Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the article by Dr Stuart W G Derbyshire and John C Bockmann Reconsidering fetal pain, published in the British Medical Journal’s Journal of Medical Ethics in January; and what steps they are taking as a result of any such assessment.

The Department does not set clinical practice. To support clinical practice, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has considered the issue of fetal pain and awareness in its guideline on Fetal Awareness: Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice.

The Department has brought the article by Dr Stuart W G Derbyshire and John C Bockmann to the attention of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. It is for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to consider whether to revise the guidelines having considered the available evidence.