Infants, pain and what health care professionals should want to know -- an issue of epistemology and ethics

Resolution of the question of pain relief in neonates and infants has been hampered by hesitation on the part of medical personnel to assign a high priority to consideration of the issue. Butler provides a partial explanation for this hesitation based on resistance to changes in belief and practice stemming from the history of neonatology and an epistemological need for coherence. She argues for suspension of both the hesitation and the resistance, and for quickly implementing changes in infant care practices. Showing that traditional reasons for denying or diminishing infant pain perception and its control have lost their persuasive power, she offers ethical arguments for recasting traditional concerns and adopting a new perspective.