Opinion ID: 1155064
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Application of Homicide by Abuse Statute in This Case

Text: McKnight next asserts the Legislature did not intend the homicide by child abuse statute apply to the stillbirth of a fetus. We disagree. McKnight asserts the term child, as used in the statute, is most naturally read as including only children already born. See S.C.Code Ann. § 16-3-85(B). In several cases this Court has specifically held that the Legislature's use of the term child includes a viable fetus. State v. Ard, 332 S.C. 370, 505 S.E.2d 328 (1998); Whitner v. State, 328 S.C. 1, 492 S.E.2d 777 (1997); State v. Horne, 282 S.C. 444, 319 S.E.2d 703 (1984). McKnight cites to portions of the statute defining harm as relating to corporal punishment and/or abandonment; she asserts this demonstrates that the statute was clearly intended to apply only to children already born. However, section 16-3-85(B) also defines harm as inflicting or allowing to be inflicted on the child physical injury ... and failing to supply the child with adequate health care ... Either of these provisions may clearly be applied to an unborn child. Accordingly, given the language of the statute, and this Court's prior opinions defining a child to include a viable fetus, we find the plain language of the statute does not preclude its application to the present case.