Sterilization

[GLWasteful]

I listened to a story on NPR this morning about a woman in CA who is giving crack addicts $200 to either have their tubes tied, use Norplant(R), or an IUD.

Her reason stems from an addict who had four children in as many years, all of whom were adopted by the woman offering the cash, IIRC.

I'm not at all sure how I feel about this, and was wondering what the take would be from the folk who post on this board.

Waste
Flick Lives!

[SkeptiJess]

Works for me. The people taking the cash weren't being involuntarily sterilized -- they didn't HAVE to take the money. Also, it was a private citizen doing the deal making not the government -- THAT would bother me a little.

------------------
Jess
Full of 'satiable curtiosity

[pldennison]

How come she isn't offering any money to men to have vasectomies? Aren't they equally responsible for the existence of these children?

[Stoid]

PL:

She is.

And I think what she is doing is 100% fabulous, no qualms at all.

[Stoid]

GL Wasteful:

It may not have been mentioned on NPR, (which I did not hear), but it was mentioned in the magazine article I read about it last week. Might have been Newsweek or Time, I'm not sure.

According to that article, she is definitely making the offer to men who get vasectomies. I don't recall whether any men had taken her up on it.

[GLWasteful]

Thanks, Stoid, I don't have a sound card on this computer at work, so I couldn't listen to the story as many times as was necessary.

I glad to see that she's willing to pay for vasectomies as well. According to the article in Time, 10 have taken her up on it.

Waste
Flick Lives!

[GLWasteful]

Actually, there was no mention of vasectomies for the fathers. It focussed primarily on the mothers.

I listened to it again, without having to worry about homicidal drivers, this time, and the main objection to it seems to be coming from minority communities. She says, though, that she's had 61 people come through, 26 white, 24 black, and 11 latino. The story finished up with testimony from a woman who said that she would have gotten her tubes tied, anyway, but the $200 was icing on the cake.

Here, I hope, is the portion of the show:
http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01...7/1999&PrgID=3
I've never done that, so forgive me if it came out screwed up.

Waste
Flick Lives!

[NicePete]

Actually, the last thing I heard as part of the story was a quote from a crack addict who had had 11 children. She said something to the effect that the program was bad because it permanently took away people's right to reproduce. I found this somewhat ironic.

Also, welcome back Phil! Hope the leg is healing well.

[David B]

I see nothing at all wrong with this. As Jess mentioned, it's a private citizen doing it. These folks are doing it of their own free will. As to the racial aspects, well, again, everybody is doing it of their own free will. She can't be responsible for which people decide to do it and which don't.

Maybe she could get some additional funding from the folks at Zero Population Growth (or whatever their name is).