OUTRAGE AT PLAN TO PAY DRUG MUMS TO TAKE PILL

THE Roman Catholic Church last night condemned a controversial proposal to
pay female drug addicts to take contraception long term as "social
engineering on a massive scale".

The radical plan will be outlined today in a lecture by Neil McKeganey,
professor of drug misuse research at Glasgow University, to tackle the
"crisis" of neglect experienced by tens of thousands of children with
drug-addict parents.

McKeganey said his research, based on interviews with 1000 drug addicts,
showed that some children were not being fed or clothed properly.

But the Catholic Church criticised the scheme as a breach of basic human
rights. Spokesman Peter Kearney said: "If you are going to sterilise
drug-addicted women, why stop there? Why not sterilise alcoholics?

"There must be as many women with chronic alcohol problems as there are
women with drug problems. This is social engineering on a massive scale and
it's completely unacceptable."

McKeganey, a leading adviser to the Scottish Executive, will argue for the
radical move at a meeting of professionals on the child protection
committee in Dumfries and Galloway. His research suggested that more than
60% of addict mothers and 85% of addict fathers no longer looked after
their children, many of whom were now looked after by friends or local
authorities. Around 60,000 children in Scotland now had drug-addicted
parents and drastic action must be taken to halt the crisis, said McKeganey.

He said that in parts of the US, female drug users were given government
cash to take long-term contraception. He added: "We now have such a crisis
in Scotland that we ought to give active consideration to paying female
drug users to take long-term contraception."

Under the plans, drug addicts who were already parents could also be given
a year to kick the habit or face having their children put up for adoption.

Alistair Ramsey, director of Scotland Against Drugs, called McKeganey's
plans "draconian".

A Scottish Executive spokesman said: "We are currently considering our
response to the Hidden Harm report on children of drug-using parents."