When a woman becomes pregnant, it is very
important for her to lead a healthy life: to eat plenty of nourishing food, get
plenty of rest, and exercise regularly. It is also vital that she avoid
anything that might harm her or her baby-to-be. For a pregnant woman, drug
abuse is doubly dangerous. According to (daily news, 2010) one hundred babies
are born with drug withdrawal symptoms every month. Some drugs can directly
impair prenatal development, most of the body organs and systems of the
baby-to-be are formed within the first ten weeks or so of pregnancy during this
stage. After about the tenth week, the fetus should grow rapidly in weight and
size. At this stage, certain drugs may damage organs that are still developing,
such as the eyes, as well as the nervous system. Continuing drug use also
increases the risk of miscarriage and premature delivery. But the greatest
danger drugs pose at this stage is their potential to interfere with normal
growth “low-birth weight babies require special care and run a much higher risk
of severe health problems or even death”. (Murphy, 1998)
The cases of women who are charged and convicted of child
abuse even before they are born reflect an interesting intersection between the
conservative War on Drugs and the conservative effort to restrict reproductive
freedoms. In the case of Whitner vs. South Carolina; the
court found that the state’s statute includes a fetus within its definition of
“child” and ruled that the “state was not violating Whitner’s Constitutional
right of privacy by punishing her for endangering her child through an already
illegal activity”. (Levine, 2010)
To understand the justice of the court ruling in this case and other similar
cases; I’ve included some images2 of babies with profound birth defects hoping
that it may readily incline us to agree with such prosecutions of women who
abuse drugs during pregnancy. There is no question that these infants are
suffering for no good reason and that their mothers have done something
horribly wrong in exposing their fetuses to harmful drugs. In this paper -as a health care administrator- I’ve tried to provide a summary of the relevant issues of mothers
exposing their fetus to risk. But rational and
compassionate discussion of the issue is so difficult. For example, if
the issue of drug use trigger an emotional response, the issue of race or
women's rights. As a result, there is “little room for meaningful exploration
of what the medical risks of drug use during
pregnancy really are and what might actually help pregnant women and drug
exposed infants”. (Nash, 2000) To prevent the
mix up between punishing women for endangering their unborn baby and keep their
right of privacy; the government will have to engage in more active monitoring
of pregnant women. Then again, we need to look on the other side of prosecuting
women engaged in such cases. One obvious result of such measures would be that
more and more women will stay away from healthcare providers, especially if
they know they are pregnant, out of fear of what could happen. This could also
encourage women to have unsafe, late-term abortions rather than risk the
pregnancy coming to term.
Conclusion
As we can see, there are a number of moral
problems with prosecuting women who exposes her fetus to risk. It may results
in a number of consequences which can have the opposite effect intended - when
women avoid doctors out of fear of jail, both they and their babies will be in
greater danger from a wide range of medical problems. Women might lose the
ability to trust their healthcare providers as doctors are forced to move from
treatment to punishment as a solution to the problem. However, having a baby is
a responsibility and a mother should be accountable for keeping her baby safe
despite the fact that he is inside her womb or between her arms.
References
Drugs During Pregnancy
http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/illegaldrugs.html
Levine, Carol (2010). Taking
Sides; Clashing Views on Bioethical Issues. NY: McGraw-Hill
Murphy, Sheilga (1998). Pregnant
Women on Drugs. NJ: Rutgers University Press.One hundred babies a month born with drug dependency
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246380/100-babies-month-born-drug-dependency-mothers-hooked-heroin.html#ixzz1Szz2ZzrZ
Pozgar, George (2007). Legal Aspects of Health Care Administration. ON : Jones & Bartlett Learning.
State Responses to Substance Abuse Among Pregnant Women
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/03/6/gr030603.html
