Claudia Passos-Ferreira

and entering the world, babies seem to be capable of consciously processing sounds, meaning their awareness might develop while they are still in the womb.

Of course, these results have potential implications scientifically, medically and ethically.

For a start, we now know that when we perform surgery in newborns or premature infants or late-term fetuses, we should give them an anesthetic.

I know that many of you will be thinking about the abortion debate.

In that context, I should stress that our strongest evidence is that consciousness requires brain structures

that emerged after 24 weeks of gestation, a time when abortion is rare.

The new evidence might extend to fetus in third trimester of gestation, but it doesn't extend earlier than that.

This is a new understanding, and this new understanding is a work in progress, but might change our picture of newborn babies.

They are not passive creatures waiting for consciousness to switch on.

They are tiny humans already perceiving patterns and interacting with the world in a meaningful way.

As human life unfolds, consciousness unfolds with it.

Our sense of ourselves grows and changes.

Our consciousness waxes and wanes until one day, it ends.

From the moment we take our first breath to the moment of our deaths, our lives are lit by the flame of awareness.

We share this flame with other animals, and we might one day share it with machines.

Collectively, our conscious minds illuminate the universe.

And though its flame eventually fades, the light of consciousness never disappears.

It is rekindled with its new life in the endless dance of existence.

Thank you.