House of Lords bill on 'sentience' would give human foetuses in UK parity with shellfish

A bill under consideration in the United Kingdom's House of Lords is attempting to establish a committee on ‘foetal sentience’.

The bill(HL Bill 15) would require the UK Secretary of State to establish a Foetal Sentience Committee. The committee’s purpose would be to provide evidence-based, scientific expertise on the sentience – a measure of how much the brain is active and "working", especially in terms of registering pain – of the human foetus in light of developments in scientific and medical knowledge,notes the UK House of Lords website.