Incarceration of pregnant drug users

[politicus]

Should it be possible to incarcerate pregnant drug users to avoid damages to the fetus by continued drug abuse?

So far Norway is the only country in the world where the rights of the fetus is above the rights of the mother when she is pregnant. They have had a law that makes it possible to use coercion against pregnant drug users.

To reduce the risk of damages to the unborn child the social service can lock the women up until the child is born if they cant or wont reduce their abuse. It happens between 25 to 30 times a year.

Forced treatment exists in Sweden and some US states, but the focus on the rights of the fetus over the rights of the mother in he Norwegian law is unique.  

Really on the fence about this one.

EDIT: Please don't derail this by making it into an abortion discussion.

[AggregateDemand]

Prison is not a drug free zone

[DemPGH]

I would not support that. Not incarceration. If anything is to be forced, perhaps it should be counseling or maybe treatment, if that and depending.

It seems to overreach and also I tend to take the view that if jail time is to be metered out for non violent activities, it should be reserved for the most egregious white collar crimes, which often damage people financially. Like, embezzlement or racketeering (which may well have violent consequences).

[Antonio the Sixth]

inb4 Adam Fitzgerald

[PiMp DaDdy FitzGerald]

inb4 Adam Fitzgerald

#keepthecleavelandracestrong

[angus]

Not a supporter.  Generally I look down on the sorts of scumbag trashy bitches who smoke or drink when they're pregnant, but I wouldn't want the state to get involved in the minutiae of our personal lives any more than it does already.  Up until recently, it wouldn't have been an issue, since the medical costs were borne by individuals, but I think that with increasing involvement of the government in our medical service industry, we will probably see more of this.  One day they'll be telling us what we can and can't eat.  Joy.

[TNF]

What a woman does with her body is her business.

[ElectionsGuy]

Nope

[politicus]

Not a supporter.  Generally I look down on the sorts of scumbag trashy bitches who smoke or drink when they're pregnant, but I wouldn't want the state to get involved in the minutiae of our personal lives any more than it does already.  Up until recently, it wouldn't have been an issue, since the medical costs were borne by individuals, but I think that with increasing involvement of the government in our medical service industry, we will probably see more of this.  One day they'll be telling us what we can and can't eat.  Joy.

This isn't about smoke or drink, but drug addicts who don't have the capacity to stop using while they are pregnant. And their drugs costs are obviously not financed by the government.

[angus]

their drugs costs are obviously not financed by the government.

They are here.  The true cost of the drugs are high, and they are certainly passed on to taxpayers.  Medical services for every premie, retard, and defective baby born to drug-addicted welfare queens are underwritten by the taxpayer.  Moreover, the costs of the incarceration by the negligent mother's offspring, once that offspring reaches the age of maturity and begins to commit crimes, will be borne by the taxpayer as well.  

Still, I'm against their incarceration for a number of reasons.  US prisons are horrible places, and whatever damage might occur to the fetus in utero as a result of drug use by the pregnant will not be ameliorated by placing the expecting mother in the environment of the penal system.  In most states pregnant women are kept with the general population, and this is where they learn a great deal of misinformation about pregnancy.  In some cases, addicted women have been placed in the medical wards of prisons and taken off drugs completely and the babies died.  They miscarried as soon as the drugs stopped because the fetus was also addicted to the drugs.  Some jails have a doula, but most do not.  Generally, pregnant women are given the bottom bunk, but most US jails are far too crowded to allow for an extra pillow or blanket for the expecting mother.  

There's quite a bit written about jails, and based on everything I have read, my conclusion is that adding yet another population to them does not seem to be the solution to any of their problems.