Pregnant Addict

The workshop on pregnant addicts was fascinating as I never really thought about this issue before, and bought a totally different light upon the subject. There are 3 approaches, in relation to Iris Young to ‘punish’ the pregnant addicts are: first to use punishment itself either deterrence or retribution and second the treatment approach or third the ethics of care. More broadly, they are categorised as the punishment approach, treatment approach and Empowerment. Women in the past have been punished in harsh ways, the judicial system have passed prejudice judgements against race and social background/upbringing towards drug victims. The real issue is: should a pregnant addict be labelled as a bad mother? The answer to this is quite problematic. I agree with Kartik, that living amongst a variety of citizens it is difficult to determine why and how pregnant addicts should be punished if at all. It depends on the type of person which will essentially determine there reaction to that kind of punishment or certain approach. For some punishment will be best suited, for them to deter and other rehabilitation. However, I think that pregnant women should not be classed as bad mothers as we are merely comparing them to our perception of good mother, as we discussed in class. I also agree with your point in reference to Foucault that “'everyone has the duty to know who he is' in all aspects in regards to 'recognize temptations' and 'acknowledge faults'”. A point we did not touch upon in class but might be worth making is that maybe the women addicted to some substance did not choose to get pregnant and was merely an accident. And in addition ruled out the notion of having an abortion as she may not been able to afford it, especially in the USA seen as they do not have a welfare state. As Meena mentioned in her PowerPoint, the reasons that women might not confess or approach any one about there problem are: They are to scared that they may get punished before even receiving any kind of understanding or help as ‘Health care professionals are obliged to report drug use thus violating privacy rights’ Fear of loosing their child I do not think that fear of punishment ultimately stops a women for committing this crime, as she may not even recognise the law or be subject to it. She may not realise the importance of life, maybe because the lack her lack of experience, self worth etc. I’m not ruling out the possibility of evil women in the world, think of Mira Hindily! Moreover, I do not think that pregnant addicts should be punished and like the idea of empowerment - a process in which individual, relatively powerless persons engage in dialogue with each other and thereby come to understand the social sources of their powerlessness and see the possibility of acting collectively to change their social environment’. (Young 1997: 91) I do agree with you in some essence Habeeba, that pregnant women might look ‘selfish’ but I think that more often then not they do care about their child – Is this not a natural instinct within women (ethics of care etc)? It is their bodily reaction that resists them to stop. It is not something you can give up over night – it is something which is almost out of their control. You have implied that the cultural measurement of this kind of act is an adequate one, but is it not a biased given that this measurement changes in any given time, place, culture and society? For example, if the law stated that women where free to inflict pain on their bodies; I think most would be fine that pregnant women were addicts. You haven’t commented on whether you believe pregnant women should be punished? Take a look at this interesting link, on procedures taken to empower pregnant addicts and professional help that can be offered to them get through their pregnancy healthily as well as supporting mothers to give up misuse of drugs, in Scotland. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/5000430.stm