quote:
Originally posted by Silver Cheetah:
If you're going to sterilise all women who smoke/drink enough to damage an unborn child, then you are talking about a LOT of people here. By that token, I would have been sterilised during my early twenties, and so would most of my female friends.
In my earlier years (ie. twenties and early thirties) I had what is euphemistically termed 'a severe drug/alcohol problem'. These days, I don't drink, smoke or do drugs, in fact, I don't even take the drugs that most people accept as a normal part of an everyday life, such as coffee, tea and sugar. What price redemption??
However, I agree that alcoholics and drug users having children can often be extremely problematic. I have seen some of the results, and they are appalling and tragic. However, not always. A very good friend of mine took cocaine throughout the early part of her pregnancy, washed down with copious amounts of alcohol.
Once she found out she was pregnant, she stopped all that, although was not able to completely stop smoking. (She did cut right down however.) She is an excellent mother, except for her propensity to smoke around her child, and in fact, having the child led to her changing her lifestyle and has been the making of her, as she is the first to admit. Again, what price redemption?
I don't know what the answer is.
Yes, I agree that sterilisation is far too extreme in cases like this. You're basically saying that these women will never be fit mothers; even though at present they certainly may not be, there is no reason to think in the future they can't be redeemed. It would be nice if there were some temporary fix, where if they did sober up it could be reversed or removed, but I don't know if even this would be acceptable to many - civil liberties and all that.
Just a question, Cheetah - how do you avoid sugar? Do you not eat fruit? Vegetables? Bread? (Need I go on?)