Quote:
Originally posted by Cochese
Can fish even feel pain?
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I would think so, just for one simple reason: they would have to in order to preserve themselves.
There is a rare disease called congenital analgesia in humans, wherein the affected person cannot feel pain. These people are constantly at risk for serious injury as a result. Most of them die young from injuries they may not have been aware they had.
I think it follows naturally that all living things would have to have some sort of pain response as a method of self-preservation.
However, people can be awfully dense about things they cannot see or feel for themselves. It was not that long ago that in some cases surgery was performed on infants without using anesthesia because there was a belief that an infant's nervous system was not developed enough to feel pain. What a crock of shite that turned out to be.
And this recent research in which scientists injected bee venom into fishes' lips in an attempt to discover whether they feel pain or not? I think we would be safe to assume the answer is yes and devote the time and money spent on that to something that makes more sense. Especially because they *still* were unable to determine anything for sure.