PRENATAL DRUG ABUSE LAWS ARE NEEDED

Re: the Aug. 24 article titled "Family, state failed crack baby."

This article should result in a long overdue public outcry to change the
laws covering prenatal drug and alcohol abuse. How many infant lives will
it take to create legislative action, which makes addicting an unborn child
to drugs and alcohol a crime?

Babies born with cocaine in their systems are extremely damaged. Their
nervous systems are greatly impaired, and they are obviously in tremendous
pain, screaming, jerking and unable to be held or comforted by the nurses
who care for them.

Their emotional, physical and intellectual processes become very
unpredictable, causing lifelong problems for these poor helpless victims,
if they live.

These infants are victims of child abuse, and the mother and father are
responsible and should be held accountable. The cocaine mother has no
constraints placed against her and is free to repeat the childbearing process.

Society may argue that the mother has rights, but what are the rights of
these abused babies? Should a mother have the right to harm and inflict
such a lifetime of abuse - if not death - on a poor helpless child at
birth? Who will protect these infants, if not society and the state of
Arizona? Let our candidates for governor and state legislature tell us what
they will do to help these infant victims.

Barbara J. Brown, R.N., Ed.D.

Editor, Nursing Administration Quarterly