JAIL DRUG MOMS TO PROTECT BABIES

To the editor:

A good society protects its citizens from harm. It pays particular
attention to protecting those who cannot protect themselves.

Your Jan. 17 cover story, "The love cure," raised the question of
protecting babies still in utero from the drug addict mother. How can
we do this except by preventing this pregnant woman from ingesting
the addictive drug? This could only be accomplished by placing the
woman in secure custory for the duration of her pregnancy. Should we
not give serious consideration to a law requiring just that?

The newborn requires one-to-one mothering for the first three years of
his life. Many do not receive this and their single parent mother
says this is because she has to work to support herself and her
child. What if we passed a law to the effect that unmarried mothers
may not undertake to rear their baby alone? There are many infertile
couples seeking to adopt babies.

We need to ask ourselves, what effect would such a law have? We
cannot know, of course, but it is reasonable to suggest that single
parent motherhood would diminish. This could benefit many babies.

Or perhaps single women would begin to take a more serious approach to
contraception, so fewer babies would be born to suffer serious neglect
in those first three years. Or perhaps such women would reconsider
marriage in light of the baby's rights as well as their own.

Similarly, what of those women who do not want to take care of their
babies themselves. It has become clear that the arrangements they do
make, serial daycares, serial nannies, rotating relatives, are often
unstable and damaging to the babies interests. Should not such
arrangements be subject to mandatory supervision and, if necessary,
the so-neglected child be placed for adoption?

Might not such a law persuade such women to take their early parenting
responsibilities more seriously? Woud this not be justice for babies?

A good society protects its babies from harm. Is our society good
enough to grasp this very thorny nettle? Or will we piously invoke the
flawed wording of our Charter of Rights to continue sweeping this
injustice to our most vulnerable citizens under the rug?

Thomas P. Millar,

MD Child Pyschiatry,

Vancouver