TWENTY OR MORE WEEKS, TO PROVIDE FOR EXCEPTIONS, AND TO PROVIDE THE ACT DOES NOT IMPLICITLY OR OTHERWISE REPEAL ANOTHER PROVISION OF LAW. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina: SECTION 1. Chapter 41, Title 44 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding: 5 “Article South Carolina PainCapable Unborn Child Protection Act Section 4441410. This article may be cited as the ‘South Carolina PainCapable Unborn Child Protection Act’. Section 4441420. The General Assembly makes the following findings: (1) Pain receptors (nociceptors) are present throughout the and nerves link these receptors to the unborn child’s entire body and subcortical plate by no later than twenty brain’s thalamus weeks. (2) By eight weeks after fertilization, the unborn child reacts to touch. After twenty weeks, the unborn child reacts to stimuli that would be recognized as painful if applied to an adult human, for example, by recoiling. (3) In the unborn child, application of such painful stimuli is associated with significant increases in stress hormones known as the stress response. (4) Subjection to such painful stimuli is associated with longterm harmful neurodevelopmental effects, such as altered pain sensitivity and, possibly, emotional, behavioral, and learning disabilities later in life. (5) For the purposes of surgery on unborn children, fetal anesthesia is routinely administered and is associated with a decrease in stress hormones compared to their levels when painful stimuli are applied without such anesthesia. (6) The position, asserted by some medical experts, that the unborn child is incapable of experiencing pain until a point later in pregnancy than twenty weeks after fertilization predominately rests on the assumption that the ability to experience pain depends on the cerebral cortex and requires nerve connections between the thalamus and the cortex. However, recent medical research and analysis, especially since 2007, provides strong evidence for the conclusion that a functioning cortex is not necessary to experience pain.
TWENTY OR MORE WEEKS, TO PROVIDE FOR EXCEPTIONS, AND TO PROVIDE THE ACT DOES NOT IMPLICITLY OR OTHERWISE REPEAL ANOTHER PROVISION OF LAW. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina: SECTION 1. Chapter 41, Title 44 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding: “Article 5 South Carolina PainCapable Unborn Child Protection Act Section 4441410. This article may be cited as the ‘South Carolina PainCapable Unborn Child Protection Act’. Section 4441420. The General Assembly makes the following findings: (1) Pain receptors (nociceptors) are present throughout the unborn child’s entire body and nerves link these receptors to the brain’s thalamus and subcortical plate by no later than twenty weeks. (2) By eight weeks after fertilization, the unborn child reacts to touch. After twenty weeks, the unborn child reacts to stimuli that would be recognized as painful if applied to an adult human, for example, by recoiling. (3) In the unborn child, application of such painful stimuli is associated with significant increases in stress hormones known as the stress response. (4) Subjection to such painful stimuli is associated with longterm harmful neurodevelopmental effects, such as altered pain sensitivity and, possibly, emotional, behavioral, and learning disabilities later in life. (5) For the purposes of surgery on unborn children, fetal anesthesia is routinely administered and is associated with a decrease in stress hormones compared to their levels when painful stimuli are applied without such anesthesia. (6) The position, asserted by some medical experts, that the unborn child is incapable of experiencing pain until a point later in pregnancy than twenty weeks after fertilization predominately rests on the assumption that the ability to experience pain depends on the cerebral cortex and requires nerve connections between the thalamus and the cortex. However, recent medical research and analysis, especially since 2007, provides strong evidence for the conclusion that a functioning cortex is not necessary to experience pain.
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