DR. GIFFORD-JONES WONDERS IF STERILIZATION OF DRUG-ADDICTED
WOMEN THE RIGHT ANSWER

It's an ideal way to write a column: I'm attending a medical
conference while cruising the Caribbean sea.

I'm spending long days listening to a variety of international
speakers.

One speaker, Dr. George Carson, Director of Fetal Medicine at the
University of Regina, reported on the use of alcohol in pregnancy.

Some authorities have a simple solution for the tragic habit of
drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Dr. Christine Lock, Associate
Professor of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia, says
it's a myth that only irresponsible derelict mothers cause serious
birth defects.

Her blunt message, "If we drink in pregnancy we place our children at
risk."

Dr. Carson said Dr. Locke's approach is indeed simple, but he
questioned whether it is good policy.

He stressed that pregnancy is not a disease, and that we're scaring
pregnant women half to death when they have a single glass of wine.

However Drs. Locke, Carson and I all abhor the effects of excessive
drinking during pregnancy. Destroying an infant physically and
mentally before birth is maternal madness.

But year after year in this country, alcohol-riddled babies are born
suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).

Health Canada estimates that nine in every 1,000 babies born in this
country have some form of FAS and one in three of these babies will
have the severe form, with wide-set eyes, thin upper lips, low birth
weight and small head circumference.

Another medical catastrophe, reported by Dr. Carson, is substance
abuse and HIV infected babies.

Today women are the fastest growing group of persons with new HIV
infections. He cited a typical case, a 24-year-old woman seen in the
emergency department of a hospital. She was agitated by a severely
infected vein from repeated drug injections. Tests soon revealed she
was pregnant, had HIV, Hepatitis C, gonorrhea, chlamydia and had been
using cocaine and marijuana.

Hearing of this case initially made me think, "My God! Suppose this
had been my mother! What a disastrous way to start life!"

Today sexual activity is occurring at an earlier age. And "party
drugs" such as ecstasy are linked to unsafe sexual behaviour and HIV
infected babies.

It's tragic for mothers to be infected with the AIDS virus. But not to
get treatment compounds the problem.

What a horrendous disaster! The cost to taxpayers runs into hundreds
of millions of dollars. But what about these babies?

I realize it's impossible to prevent irresponsible, drug-ridden women
from getting pregnant. But Dr. Carson related cases of HIV women
getting pregnant over and over again.

Good sense dictates that there should be legislation that allows
society to sterilize these women. Surely children should have the
right be protected from such irresponsible mothers.

But it won't happen. No one in authority has the intestinal fortitude
to even mention this possibility.

Write to Dr. Gifford-Jones, First Canadian Medical Centre, First
Canadian Place, Box 119, Toronto, Ont., M5X 1A4