Pay drug addicts not to reproduce says UK expert

Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 14 Mar 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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If you are a female drug addict you should be paid to take contraceptives so that you do not have kids, says Professor Neil McKeganey, an expert from the Centre for Drug Misuse and Research, UK.

He said that meeting the needs of infants and children born to drug addicted mothers was getting out of control; he called it 'a crisis'. He would like to see a long-term programme put into practice where a woman takes contraceptives if she is a drug addict. He thinks that paying them is probably the most effective way.

According to McKeganey, 60% of addicted mothers do not look after their children. The figure for addicted fathers is 85%.

He said that drug addicts have such chaotic lifestyles that the effect on children is awful.

According to his research, more than 50,000 Scottish children have been exposed to drug addiction in the home.

Some of the stories are heartbreaking. Many children have woken up on Christmas day to find that their presents have been sold to pay for their parents' addiction. Others have woken up in the night to find a parent or both parents dead as a result of an overdose.

He believes that female drug addicts get pregnant due to their chaotic lifestyles, rather than a desire to have kids.

He quoted cases in the USA where women addicts were paid to have contraceptive injections.

McKeganey said 'We now have such a crisis in Scotland that we ought to give active consideration to paying female drug users to take long-term contraception.'

He also suggested giving drug addicts who have children ultimatums. Clear up your act within a year or your children will be put up for adoption.

An organisation called Scotland Against Drugs said that the children must be supported in these situations. They suggest offering more support for mothers and their children.

Other experts call this measure a bit draconian. They say that it is not possible to know whether an addicted woman is going to be a good mother. To stop her having kids is too extreme, they say.

Religious groups have joined in the argument. The Catholic Church is against the idea. They say that if you sterilise drug addicts, then you might as well do the same with alcoholics and other undesirables. They have called it 'social engineering on a massive scale.'