"Following concerns generated by the debate on fetal awareness and, particularly, the controversy around whether the fetus could feel pain, the RCOG published, in October 1997, a working party report.1 A guiding principle in that report was concern that the fetus should be protected from any potentially harmful or painful procedure but, at the same time, the assessment of the capacity to be harmed should be based on established scientific evidence. A major and important conclusion of the report was that the human fetus did not have the necessary structural integration of the nervous system to experience awareness or pain before 26 weeks of gestation. In addition, the report recommended that those carrying out diagnostic or therapeutic procedures on the fetus in utero at or after 24 weeks should consider the need for fetal analgesia."