John Campbell PhD, a retired nurse educator and YouTuber with 2.4 million subscribers, has made an illuminating video on human development, highlighting new evidence that unborn children dream in the womb.

Introducing the video, Dr Campbell said:

“There’s a lot of debate going on at the moment about the nature of human life, when human life begins, in light of the recent abortion law changes in the United States. So I’m not going to get involved in that debate, but I want to talk about fetal development so we can inform this with a bit of science.”    

Dr Campbell went on to say: “When I was a zygote, all of the genetics that is in me now, all of the potential that’s in me now was already there.  So we start off as one single cell… quite amazing but scientifically undeniable.”

Dr Campbell showed a series of photos of an unborn child, noting milestones such as cardiac contractions beginning at 3 weeks, stress hormone responses at 18 weeks, a clear sleep-wake cycle by 30 weeks, with REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep, associated with dreams) alternating with deeper non-REM sleep.  

“The evidence now”, said Dr Campbell, is “indicating quite strongly that from 28-29-30 weeks… the child is dreaming. Quite what they dream about of course, I don’t think we’ll ever know, but [it is] interesting to know that we do have dreams from this stage in development, really quite earlier on than most people would think.”

SPUC comment

A SPUC spokesperson said: “Dr Campbell’s clear exposition of the wonders of early human life is inspiring to see and hear. While he did not comment on abortion as such, his remarks on the origin of every human being and on evidence for pain sensitivity as the child develops are not without significance for abortion.  

“That evidence shows that unborn babies also dream ought to give all pro-abortion apologists pause for thought.”

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