The question is - how vaildly can the term "painful" be applied to an
organism that is not "consciously aware" of its own existence, much less of
any physical stimuli that might affect it? An invertebrate can react to a
stimulus - but so can a piece of muscle dissected out of a frog. Obviously
the piece of muscle is not "feeling pain", since "feeling" in any real sense
is a function of the brain. Even an ameba will move away from what we
humans might characterize as "an unpleasant stimulus". But that's an
anthropomorphism. The ameba isn't "aware" that it is experiencing anything
"unpleasant". Nor is it "aware" that it is moving away. In fact, it isn't
"aware" of anything whatsoever. It is just as unconscious as a human being
under general anesthesia.
Granted, an ameba is an extreme example, and a mollusk is considerably more
complex than an ameba, but still, its "brain", is no more than a small
swelling on its primitive nerve cord, and is designed totally for autonomic
functioning. A mollusk cannot think. It cannot be consciously aware of
itself or its surroundings, and it cannot "feel" in the usual sense, which
is to say the human sense, of the word. It never experiences fear or
pleasure or hunger or pain in the same sense higher organisms do, because it
does not possess the neurological anatomy necessary to generate such
feelings. Can a stimulus be called "pain" if the organism isn't aware that
it is "in pain"? And how can it be "aware" that it is in pain if it isn't
even "aware" that it exists? Such lower invertebrates simply react. They
don't "feel".
If you stick a fishhook into a worm and the worm's body reacts violently,
it's tempting to say "that worm must be in terrible pain", because we know
from experience that sticking a fishhook into our fingers is painful. But
it is painful only because we have a highly developed nervous system capable
of generating and transmitting specific electrochemical signals, and a brain
capable of interpreting such signals as pain or touch or hot or cold. If we
take that brain out of the loop, for example by general anesthesia, then
being cut with a scalpel is painless. Since the invertebrate doesn't
possess a true brain, it doesn't "feel pain" any more than an anesthetized
human does. It's tissues simply react to stimuli, much like a dissected
strand of muscle, and that is all it is capable of. Likewise a clam or a
snail.
> ----------
> From: Conchologists List on behalf of LaVerne Lambert
> Reply To: Conchologists List
> Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 11:15 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Shells have feelings too..., but how much??
>
> Dear people on Conch-L,
> I have had a friend ask me a question that I am not able to answer...
> I
> know some of you are scientists and serious collectors that may know this
> information... When cleaning a mollusk, which way is the least painful
> for
> the animal?? freezing, cooking slowly, or something else... I would
> great
> appreciate knowing where to find any research in this area as well...
> Thanks so much....
> LaVerne
>
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