Through all the tweets during class, it seems as if we all came back to the centering question of 'what defines whether a fetus is a person or not?' This seems to be the centering question in the class; almost all the cases deal in some way with whether the unborn is considered to have rights as a person. Basically, what defines life? This question is too controversial for the court system to address concretely, so it seems to me like every case tries to skirt around this question by addressing each persons rights separately in each situation. Though it may only solve tiny pieces of the ethics problems involving reproductive technology, it is probably the only peaceful way to address these complex and controversial issues.
Over the discussion, I was running into the mental barriers of how to decide if there should be punishments for these women, or just a standard of helping these women through treatment. I am still baffled that even though our technology has soared in reproductive technology, we still are not able to discern whether or not a child's illness is due to a mother's bad decisions. Would this have to be determined by a mother's intentions? How in the heck would you be able to judge this?
If we were only able to know the correlation between defects to mother's choices, then the government and social services would have more of an ability to enforce punishments relating to the mother's decisions. If it were related, I believe there should be some punishment. In a woman's pre-natal care, she is informed by her doctor that smoking, alcohol and drugs have a negative effect on her child. Since this is known information to the mother, she is taking a direct choice to negatively impact her child. There is no way around it if she has been informed of possible consequences of her actions. However, in the situation we are in now, where there can be no true connection drawn between a mothers decision and the effects on her child, it is not fair to accuse a mother of child abuse with no conclusive evidence.
If there was a limit to the time period drinking/smoking/drugs was 'allowed' in a pregnancy without the threat of being charged with child abuse, it would almost be as though the government is condoning these acts during pregnancy. There should either be no regulation, or a complete regulation. The way the system is running as of now, with some cases handcuffing a woman to her birthing bed, and some cases allowing women to go about her regular addictive tendencies of drinking and smoking, these inconsistencies are confusing and put a judge's decision up in the air, different for each state.
One decisive decision should be made addressing the large questions, thus tackling smaller questions and cases.
You pose several questions at once in this most recent post. Is a fetus a person? When defines life? Does a fetus have rights? Does the mother's poor decisions affect the fetus and does the government have the right to enforce punishment? Since the title of your post is "Addicted Mothers", I will address the last question. Embryology tells us at what stage of development various organs develop. Knowing this, physicians can determine at what fetal age the fetus is most susceptible to teratogens (agents which cause malformations). Once a mother knows she is pregnant (and ideally even before she conceives), she is informed by her physician what to avoid (alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, etc.),as you mention. There is no "safe" period during which a mother could be allowed to drink, smoke or use drugs as you suggest in your post. For a mother to willfully engage in behaviors which harm the fetus is indeed child abuse, in my mind. The mother is truly harming the child and putting it at risk of developmental or anatomic damage (to the fetal heart, brain, reproductive organs etc.)If the mother is a repetitive "fetal abuser" (ie. she has born multiple children affected with fetal alcohol syndrome, cocaine withdrawal), then yes, I fully agree that A.) This mother needs help with her addictions and B.) Her children should be removed from her and placed into foster care.
ReplyDeleteSo you believe that only after she has born multiple children with fetal alcohol syndrome that the children should be placed in foster care. What about those women who choose to over-excersize or choose to run marathons against their doctor's recommendations? Should the stipulation of putting them into foster care be reserved only for children from fetal alcohol syndrome? I totally agree with you on all of these issues, however in this blog we are told to try and view the issues from all perspectives, so I was just trying to encompass multiple trains of thought in one post. It is cool seeing this from your medical point of view though!!
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