'PAY FEMALE DRUG ADDICTS NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN'

Sunday Telegraph

LONDON -- A British academic has provoked controversy by calling for female
drug addicts to be paid to take contraception to stop them having kids.

Neil McKeganey, a professor of drug misuse research at Glasgow University,
said that the move would greatly reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies
among drug abusers and stop much child abuse.

McKeganey also said that drug addicts who were already parents should be
given a year to give up the habit or face the prospect of having their
children taken from them and put up for adoption.

He said that both initiatives would help tackle the "crisis" of neglect
experienced by hundreds of thousands of children with drug-addicted parents.

However, critics claimed the proposal is ill-thought out, would lead to
"social engineering on a massive scale" and could lead to enforced
sterilization of other problem groups in society.

McKeganey said he had made his proposal after interviewing 1,000 drug
addicts and discovering that many children were not being fed or clothed
properly.

"We now have such a crisis that we ought to give active consideration to
paying female drug users to take long-term contraception," he said.

"The situation is so far beyond our capacity that we need to look at ways
of reducing the likelihood of female drug users becoming pregnant. It does
look as if, in many instances, female drug users are becoming pregnant
because of the chaos of their lifestyles."

He said that in parts of America, female drug users were given government
cash to take long-term contraception.

McKeganey controversially added that drug addicts who were already parents
should be given a year to get off drugs or lose their kids to adoptive
parents. He said that many children of addicted parents were being looked
after by grandparents or local authorities.