brighid

That isn't always so cut and dry. There are many women who do not have regular periods and don't know from month to month they even could be pregnant. There are many cases of women still getting what they consider a period, but find out a few months into it that they are actually pregnant. I know of a number of women who took home pregnancy tests that said NO, but in fact where. This of course could be do to an error in the application of the test.

My sister is one of those women who does not have a regular period. She has been pregnant 3 times without actually knowing it. She is also pretty thin and is one of the lucky women who don't experience morning sickness or any complications until late in her pregnancies. She has honestly had NO clue she was pregnant sometimes until 3-4 months into those pregnancies.

The problem I see with legislation like this is the possibility of such things over stepping their bounds. If a woman smokes and drinks and looses the child during pregnancy should she be criminally liable as well? What if she is so stressed out because of outside factors that she is unable to carry to term, is she somehow negligent and criminally liable?

I really hate the idea of pregnant women who smoke, drink, do drugs and choose to carry a child to term but I am more uncomfortable with the idea of legislating that a women, because they may become pregnant must adhere to some higher standard of health care OR that women who are addicted to drugs should be criminally punished for having these diseases.

I sometimes get upset with my mother for having smoked while I was in utero (back before this was really a no-no) and that my parents smoke my whole life. It contributed to my asthma and my overall poor health through childhood. Should my parents have been locked up because of it? NO. Should we have been taken away from them because they smoked? NO. Should parents smoke? NO. Should pregnant women do these things? NO.

Is there a viable and easy solution to this? Absolutely not. In order to reduce the number of children born with defects caused by mothers smoking, drinking and doing drugs during pregnancy goes far beyond what we have discussed. We should be looking for answers that address why women (and men) become addicted to drugs and how to properly handle this disease process without criminalizing it. What environmental and social factors should be eliminated to prevent this from happening in the first place?

I don't mean to say that I don't believe in some cases that criminal negligence may not take place, but I am VERY hesitant to agree to legislation that puts a certain class of women into the criminal justice system.

If a woman can abort a fetus and it is not yet considered to have human rights, how can we say that at the same time she must do this or that to ensure no defects? Would this line of reasoning be applicable to parents who carry genetic traits that will increase their chances of having a child with life threatening diseases or other defects? Are those parents also negligent if they have children, knowing their actions may very well result in a child beign horribly deformed?

Brighid

Glory

I know of a women who had a terribly deformed and afflicted child. She had had x rays taken while pregnant. The technician had asked her if she was pregnant. She said no, basing her belief on the fact that she had just had a period and her cycle was regular. She was wrong. That hospital now requires a pregnancy test prior to xrays if there is the slightest possibility of pregnancy.

I did not know I was pregnant untill 4 weeks into my pregancy. I found out much earlier than most women do.

Then there are those women on Oprah who went through their entire pregnancies and labour without getting a clue. Can we say denial?

Amazing as it seems, we don't always know that we are pregnant. And, the hardest thing in the world is proving what someone did or did not know.

Glory

[ November 06, 2002: Message edited by: Glory ]</p>