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This is where women in America who can prove drug addiction are paid 300 dollars if they can then prove they have then got long term birth control or have been sterilised.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8500285.stm

The founder of Project prevention has just been on This Morning trying to bring this over here from America, wondered what you all thought of this?

I'm not sure, although i agree drug addicts giving birth to sick babies as a result of their addiction is horrible, i don't think offering an addict money to be sterilised is right. What addict is going to turn down 200 quid?? (approx)

but then part of agrees with long term birth control but its just obvious that money is going to be spent on more drugs.......

I dunno i can't decide on this one, part of me thinks its morally wrong to bribe addicts to give up their human rights but on the other hand it works and stops more sick kids being born to mothers who don't/can't care.

What do you think?

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Yeah. I realise that people who are long term addicts aren't really in a position to 'consent' to family planning, but offering them a fast buck (which they'd probably chew their own arm off for) is not a good long-term solution IMHO. I understand that children are born in to this cycle of suffering, but some addicts do get better....and they have as much right to a family as anyone else. I agree with deman, it wasn't so long ago that people were forcibly sterilised for very spurious reasons.
suzybean
Reference:
it wasn't so long ago that people were forcibly sterilised for very spurious reasons.
Thats the part that doesn't go down well with me as these women (some men have used the project too) aren't in a stable state of mind to make such a big decision.

I wonder how many people have done this then got clean, turned their life around and regretted letting someone take their option of a family away.
Jen-Star
Reference:
I think it's horrible. Who are these people to decide on others' suitability for parenthood? It's eugenics, and the Nazis were good at that.
It is a terrible dilemma but there is another side to it.  There was a letter in my paper this morning from a woman who is bringing up her grandson because both of his parents are drug addicts.  The mother has another child also being raised by grandparents.  The woman who wrote the letter has had a terrible time of it because of the difficulties being faced by the child, who sleeps badly, has mood swings etc. There is the question of dealing with social workers, drug workers lawyers and the parents themselves.  The woman had raised 6 children of her own so thought it would be fine but she says her health has been badly affected by the effort.  She says she gave up a well paid job to take on the boy and although she is glad he is with her if she had known beforehand what was involved she doesn't think she would have been able to take it on.  Incidentally the woman's suggestion was that long term birth control (contraceptive jab or coil I suppose) should be tied in with help with drug addiction (methadone or whatever).  You don't get one without t'other.
squiggle
Reference: squiggle
Incidentally the woman's suggestion was that long term birth control (contraceptive jab or coil I suppose) should be tied in with help with drug addiction (methadone or whatever). You don't get one without t'other.
Long term contraception should be encouraged for anyone not in a position to bring up children. I don't see why she would deny it for people not prepared to go on a methadone programme.
Blizz'ard
Reference: squiggle
Incidentally the woman's suggestion was that long term birth control (contraceptive jab or coil I suppose) should be tied in with help with drug addiction (methadone or whatever). You don't get one without t'other.
Long term contraception should be encouraged for anyone not in a position to bring up children. I don't see why she would deny it for people not prepared to go on a methadone programme.
Blizz'ard
Reference:
Incidentally the woman's suggestion was that long term birth control (contraceptive jab or coil I suppose) should be tied in with help with drug addiction (methadone or whatever). You don't get one without t'other.

And as I've said above, birth control is fine.

But one special interest group deciding who is (or isn't) fit to procreate just is not on. What if someone with financial influence decided ginger people shouldn't reproduce? Or short people? Or Jewish people?

Demantoid
Reference: squiggle
Incidentally the woman's suggestion was that long term birth control (contraceptive jab or coil I suppose) should be tied in with help with drug addiction (methadone or whatever). You don't get one without t'other.
Long term contraception should be encouraged for anyone not in a position to bring up children.
I don't see why she would deny it for people not prepared to go on a methadone programme.
Blizz'ard
Reference:deman
What if someone with financial influence decided ginger people shouldn't reproduce? Or short people? Or Jewish people?
Yep. That's the slippery slope. It's good that there is an open conversation about issues like this, but draconian measures like 'enforced' sterilisation is a backwards step IMO. Being a drug addict does not automatically diminish your individual human rights. I understand that the children caught up in this cycle have an equal right to happiness, but there are other ways....may cost a little more but some things are worth the money thrown at it.
suzybean
Reference:
Your post sounded like she would deny it to some.
I think the point she was trying to make is that drug addicts maybe need an incentive to get contraceptive help.  They are, after all, not thinking straight much of the time are they?  And to be honest she does have a lot more experience of 'the sharp end' than most of us do.
squiggle
Reference: squiggle
I think the point she was trying to make is that drug addicts maybe need an incentive to get contraceptive help. They are, after all, not thinking straight much of the time are they? And to be honest she does have a lot more experience of 'the sharp end' than most of us do.
Hmmmm, well I think telling someone who wants to try to give up drugs that they can only get help if they get fitted with a coil, is quite risky, but to tell a drug addict that they can't be fitted with a coil unless they go on a methadone programme, is completely nonsensical.

I'm sure she would want all addicts who want to use contraception, to be given help with that, whether or not they intend to try to give up the drugs. If she thought about it.
Blizz'ard
Destiny's Letter
My name is Destiny Harris I am 20 years old and was adopted when I was 8 months old by Barbara and Smitty Harris at birth I tested positive for crack, PCP, and heroin! . When I was tested at age one they told my mother that I would always be delayed because of my prenatal neglect. It turns out that the real neglect was after birth in foster care for 8 months. Now I'm on the Deans list in College and I owe that to my parents who dedicated their lives to loving and caring about me. Over the past 12 years my siblings and I have worked with our mother as she goes into the streets talking to addicts across the Country. We have been in all types of neighborhoods with people of all races, and the one thing I've noticed is that the addicts seem to love and respect my mother.
When they learn what she is doing they tell her it's great and usually help her find other addicts to give the information to. I cannot tell you over the years how many heartbreaking stories we've heard from female addicts, telling my mother about their children that they don't have. I've heard them tell my mother about their infants dying, being born with deformities, being HIV positive, and worse. The looks on their faces as they tell their stories would break even the toughest of hearts. The saddest thing about this to me is that if they were using birth control while they were living that lifestyle they wouldn't have heartbreaking stories to share.
Over the years I have heard my mother ask so many of these women if they wanted to go into drug treatment, even offering to send them to Rev. Thompson's treatment program right there on the spot, but sadly they have so many excuses why they can't go to treatment at that moment. They have to tell their old man, just not ready to do that yet. They'll call my mom soon about it, or they cry and tell my mom they've already tried treatment many times and it didn't work for them. My mom doesn't take no for an answer usually asking them a few more times then giving them our toll free number in case they change their minds. My mom has the ability walk away knowing that at least if they call about birth control that will at least take their worry and heartbreak away if they don't continue getting pregnant.
Over the years I have met and learned about so many children born to addicts who have physical or mental problems, children growing up in foster care wishing they could be adopted telling me how many homes they have lived in which is just so sad to me because I know that could be me. I have no doubt that I would be a totally different person had I grown up in foster care. I was only in it briefly and even I didn't walk away without signs to remind me that I was there. The first picture I have of myself is when I am 8 months old because no one took the time to take pictures of me. I will never know what I looked like before the age of 8 months. Unfortunately, I know I am not the only one with a story like this. I guess this is minor compared to the stories I've heard. To be honest if I had to live the life that many foster children I've spoken to have lived I would have rather not been conceived!
To those who say what my mother is doing is wrong go adopt some of these children because to me if you don't you're such a hypocrite! I've heard people say negative things about the work my mother does, but what are those people actually doing to help these addicts? I guess if they all stop getting pregnant they'll be out of a job because then whom will you advocate for? Just what are you advocating because all the addicts my mom has talked to don't want to continue giving birth to children the system takes. I am very proud of my mother because she saw a huge problem that was not only hurting children, but their mothers as well and came up with a solution. I love you mom, and as a child born to an addict I know my life without you could have been full of heartache like hundreds of thousands of children across the Country who don't know their siblings and long to be loved.
Mom you always say if you ever won the lottery that you'd buy the biggest home you could find and adopt as many children as possible and I know you would. I won the lottery when you and daddy adopted my siblings and me and rescued us from the system.

Keep up the great work.

Love, Destiny

(Letter has not been edited for grammar or punctuation.)

stonks
Reference: squiggle
I think in the main that she is thinking about drug addicts who do not want to give up drugs.
And denying them contraception would help how?

As far as I can see, someone who is not ready to give up drugs is in even more urgent need of contraceptive help.
I can understand encouraging them to take both courses of action, but making it a case of 'You don't get one without t'other', is hardly fair on those kids born as a consequence. 
Blizz'ard
Reference: Blizzie
I don't think anyone has a problem with the contraceptive option, just the sterilisation.
 I'm all for that, and it is a great letter.
But drug addicts can, and do, turn their lives around. For them to get their lives together and still know they will never be able to have a family because someone bribed them into being sterilised when they were too weak to say no - well, it's horrific.
Instead of preying on vulnerable women at their lowest ebb in order to suit their own agenda, this group could show a lot more care and compassion if they spent their time and money on helping them get off drugs.
Demantoid

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