Opposition to the practice of offering $300.00 to drug addicts to prevent unfortunately compromised babies seems to start by questioning the validity of a drug addict’s decision to terminate because they are of unsound mind to make the right decision for themselves.
Most everyone is okay with sterilization but not forced sterilization. The implication of some of the opposition is that a drug addicts ability to decide for himself/herself is severely compromised, especially with the offer of $300.00.
So I’m starting a poll for those of you with sound body and mind and ask you what your decision should be if you ever become a drug addict with children in foster care and sexually active.
$300.00 for a Mirena coil- sure.
$300.00 for sterilisation (which requires surgery/anaesthesia, is permananet and it has a HIGHER failure rate than a Mirena and the risk of ectopic pregnancy is increased)- no chance.
My main issues are that this programme doesn’t really allow for the possibility of the addict ever getting sober and healthy at a future point- a point where they might be ready and able to have kids. It takes this choice away from them at a point where they would do anything to get money for drugs.
It’s kind of the antithesis of informed consent, and when you are talking about something as major and as permanent as sterilisation, I think you have serious ethical problems.
Go hand out condoms, and get women Depo, Mirena or Implants- don’t take away their fertility permanently.
I think it sounds fantastic and if I were in a position where I got $300 to have one less thing to worry about when I was kind of screwed up already I would take it in a heartbeat, though I would take a temporary thing like an IUD. The actual program being discussed in the other thread encourages temporary measures such as a depo or IUDs and will not allow you to take permanent sterilization unless you already have children. It seems to me that the people who are taking the tube tying option really, really don’t want more kids simply because they turned down the temporary measures that were offered. If my only option was the permanent surgical option I would turn it down.
If I’ve already got kids in foster care, I’ll take the sterilization. Obviously this parenthood thing isn’t working out for me. If I don’t have kids yet, I’d be hesitant to completely cut off that option, but I would be willing to do a mirena.
Waivers from prosecution for death and dismemberment that kidnap victims can sign in the presence of their kidnappers.
Look, I get that, in theory, this is a program that would do some good. But reality comes up with some really messy scenarios that this plan must deal with. Biggest of which is that this is completely unenforceable legally because you’re having people under the influence of drugs sign contracts. That the contracts deal with such a personal issue and is as permanent as it is is just icing on the cake.
While it does appear that this organization will pay for people to get IUDs if they want them, I don’t think that condoms or IUDs are actually very compatible with the lifestyle of a drug addict.
Condoms only work if the person remembers to use one every time. Honestly, that is a level of diligence and responsibility that crack addicts just are not capable of.
Even in people who aren’t drug addicts, condom use is often very far from the ideal. I would wager a good number of people on this messageboard owe their existence to their parents not using a condom every single time.
The problem with IUDs is that at least some of these women are probably involved in prostitution in order to fund their drug habit. That puts them at risk for pelvic inflammatory disease if they have an IUD. It’s better if they were just surgically sterilized than to become sterile from a nasty infection.
To be clear, Project Prevention does not offer sterilization to those without kids. Those opting for Tubal Ligation with the group have on average 4 children.
They do pay for IUDs and they provide other long term contraceptive choices such as implants, hormone patches and shots. Less than half choose the sterilization route. http://www.projectprevention.org/statistics/
I can’t see how I can answer this poll accurately, seeing as how I’ve never experienced being a drug addict. The rational answer for me would be, “I would get cleaned up; my fertility isn’t worth 300 pounds” but if I were actually an addict I’m sure my thoughts would be quite different.