Pubdate: Sun, 14 Mar 2004
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Contact:  2004 Telegraph Group Limited
Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/114
Author: David Bamber, Home Affairs Editor

'PAY FEMALE ADDICTS NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN'

A leading academic has provoked controversy by calling for female drug 
addicts to be paid to take contraception to stop them having children.

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.

Prof Mckeganey: Drastic Action Is Needed

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

Prof 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.

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

The professor estimates that there are about 60,000 children in Scotland 
with drug-addicted parents and all needed significant support through to 
their teenage years. Nationally, that would mean there were more than 
600,000 children with drug-addicted parents.

His research has found that some children had woken up to find their 
parents dead from an overdose, while others had had their Christmas 
presents sold to pay for drugs.

The research also suggested that more than 60 per cent of drug-addicted 
mothers and 85 per cent of fathers no longer looked after their children.

Prof McKeganey is due to give a lecture on the topic today to health 
professionals.

Last night, the Roman Catholic Church condemned his proposals, saying that 
they would breach people's human rights. Peter Kearney, the church's 
spokesman, said: "If you are going to effectively 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."

Frank Warburton, the director of services at DrugScope, a Government-funded 
body that distributes advice to help people to quit drugs, also criticised 
the proposal.

"It is true that a large number of children in Britain have drug-dependent 
parents. The estimates we have suggest 250,000 to 300,000," he said. "This 
proposal, however, strikes me as wholly disproportionate to the problem. It 
would create a very controlling and punitive state that would interfere in 
peoples' lives."

However, Prof McKeganey's views won partial support from David Hinchliffe, 
the Labour MP for Wakefield, who chairs the House of Commons Health Select 
Committee.

"I know a lot of people will resist this because of fears of eugenics and 
social control, but the problem of addict parents is a huge one. Before I 
became an MP, I worked in local authority social care and more than once I 
have had to take into care a newborn baby because the mother just couldn't 
cope.

"The problems of children growing up with addicts is immense and many end 
up in care or neglected.

"We would have to give careful thought before going down this path of 
giving them money to take contraception, but it is an interesting idea."
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager