A question of life and death will be on the ballot this November for Marylanders: whether to constitutionally guarantee the ability to get an abortion in the state. Currently, unborn children can be destroyed before they are viable outside the womb in the state.
However, with the advancement of AI understanding what’s going on in the minds of the unborn is likely to advance, and with it could arrive some inconvenient truths.
In June, researchers published in the scientific journal Communications Biology that in the brain of the human fetus, “high-level associative areas start emerging prior to exposure to the extra-utero environment.”
In 2023, author Nyla Husain wrote an article for the American Association for the Advancement of Science titled “Babies’ Brains Are Primed for Their Native Language Before Birth.”
In the book “Donald School Fetal Brain Functioning,” author Asim Kurjak writes, “We have learned from the research that the fetus is capable of action planning and learning, meaning that probably the capability of being aware and conscious should proceed.”
A year though can be an eon in the age of science. To try to be more up to date, I reached out to my nerdy digital associate a few days ago — ChatGPT.
My favorite chatterbox was uncharacteristically contradictory on the matter of consciousness. Discussing the facts of fetal brain development, ChatGPT stated: “The general scientific consensus is that certain neural structures and connections required for consciousness and self-awareness are not fully developed until later in gestation. Most scientists believe that while the fetal brain shows activity, it does not have the complex, integrated neural activity associated with consciousness or self-awareness until closer to birth or even after birth.”
When asked about the nature of consciousness and self-awareness regarding AI, my chattering associate demurred, concluding: “There is no definitive answer yet on when consciousness or self-awareness begins, either in human fetuses or potentially in AI.”
Pressed further about its answer of “most scientists” believing that fetuses, at best, only attain consciousness later in pregnancy, ChatGPT acknowledged: “‘Most scientists’ refers to a general understanding rather than a quantified poll” (of scientists).
With AI now able to read the minds of ALS patients, is it only a matter of time until we understand more about the inner lives of unborn children? Probably.
What is clear is now is not the time to be enshrining unfettered abortion into constitutions. The truth that the mind of the unborn child is potentially self-aware makes it pretty hard to sell the notion that the fetus is simply a convenient or inconvenient appendage of the mother, dependent on her will.
The baby, too, is more than flesh and blood. They are a life waiting to be well-lived, almost entirely dependent on their mother’s mercy to do so. Destroying their future is no way to move forward.
Conscience or unconscious, ChatGPT was clear on one thing: 60 million abortions occurred in America since the 1970s. That’s a nightmare anyway you look at it.
