At the BBC’s Science Focus, Hatty Willmoth looks at the new evidence for consciousness in very young infants before and after birth. It’s a comparatively new topic because children that young were just assumed to lack it. Only recently has actual research been carried out. She quotes the paper by neuroscientist Joel Frohlich and philosopher Tim Bayne which suggests five months as a cutoff point. But that cutoff point is uncertain, it seems:

Their conclusion comes from what they call a “cluster-based” approach: instead of looking for one single marker of consciousness, they identify a whole set of clues – brain activity patterns, responses to stimuli, signs of awareness.

“Any one marker by itself, we shouldn’t fully trust,” says Frohlich. “But if you see a convergence of mini markers, that’s a pretty good indicator that consciousness might be arising.”

So, does that mean babies under five months aren’t conscious? Well, here’s where it gets really interesting: while younger babies don’t show all the signs of consciousness, they display some markers. And intriguingly, similar clues might be present in foetuses as well.

“We may have to rethink consciousness completely.” Here’s why, April 7, 2025

That, Willmoth notes, raises the awkward question of abortion. Frohlich soothes her, telling her not to worry:

“What is really important to understand here is we’re only talking about the last trimester of pregnancy, which is usually after the legal limits on abortion in most jurisdictions,” he says. “The vast, vast, vast majority of abortions that take place are much earlier than that, usually in the first trimester of pregnancy.” “Rethink consciousness completely.”

Image Credit: vchalup - Adobe Stock

But one percent of what number?

Well then, let’s take one jurisdiction for which figures are easily available and comprehensible: Pew Research reports that, according to Centers for Disease Control, 1% of abortions in the United States are performed in the second half of gestation, 21 weeks or more. In 2020, 930,160 abortions were reported. That amounts to 9,302 who were aborted while approaching or reaching viability.

If Frohlich and Willmoth think that human consciousness confers a right to live and that Frohlich and colleagues’ research is onto something, such numbers should trouble them more.

Note: Leading neuroscientist Christof Koch became a target of Cancel Culture in part because his popular theory of consciousness might threaten the right to abortion. When it comes to honest enquiry about early human consciousness, that third rail may derail the research train.

You may also wish to read: Researchers ask: When are children conscious before birth? Human consciousness in general is acknowledged to be a Hard Problem and prenatal consciousness is certainly a subset of that. If examples of terminal and paradoxical lucidity in old age are any guide, we should not conclude that children must lack consciousness before a given stage.