[ExI] Subject: Re: Human extinction

[Stefano Vaj]

On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 6:02 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
> To explain my position, I
> have witnessed and assisted at several dozen deliveries during my
> medical training, and in most of those, the mother was in terrible
> pain: worse pain than I have seen in emergency departments, surgical
> wards or cancer palliative care wards.

One wonders how pain would be measured and compared in such different
contexts. Might it be a misinterpretation of symptoms on the part of
the (male) physician? Moreover, one wonders why so few women have ever
committed suicide to stop the pain, or demanded euthanasia, and how
more than a few refuse anesthesiac or analgesiac treatments that would
be very poor candidates for resisting even bland torture.

In principle, pain signals body damage in order to have the organism
take whatever action is possible to avoid it. In the context of
birth-giving, may it be that the "interpretation" by the woman of the
"pain" involved ends up being different either for biological or for
cultural reasons, even in a culture obsessed with pain and stress
avoidance and with an average very low pain threshold?

Lastly, there are a few women who (allegedly) give birth without even
realising it, and thinking they had to go to the toilet. This suggests
that at the very least a wide range exists with regard to birth-giving
pains...

Stefano Vaj