Member of the Church of Scientology have gotten a bill introduced in Nebraska to allow a religious exemption from metabolic screening of newborns. Scientologists Ray and Louise Spiering of Wahoo, Nebraska, testified before the Unicameral's Health and Human Services Committee explaining their church's belief in 'Silent Birth,' which prohibits speaking any words to the new born or inflicting any pain before the infant is a week old. The church therefore opposes drawing the few drops of blood needed for metabolic testing during that period. Ray Spiering testified that the brain has a primitive part called the reactive mind that is 'survival-oriented' and cannot reason. Pain activates the reactive mind to record the details of the current situation, such as smells and sounds 'and especially words themselves,' he
said. Later, when an individual encounters the same sensory data or words, his primitive mind turns on its old recording and tells him to fight or flee and can make him relive the pain of an earlier experience, Spiering said. Because a newborn has been through so much pain during the birth process, Scientology believes she should not be subjected to any pain or hear any words until she is several days old.