Gordonb Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Just seen an article on the Northern News about mentally handicapped children who are that way as a result of their mothers drinking excess alcohol during pregnancy. Looking at the web it appears that this is now the biggest cause of non genetic mental disorders. To put it bluntly the majority of these children through no fault of their own will end up requiring some kind of support throughout their lives which will require funding from somewhere (this means you and me the taxpayers). At what point do other forum members believe we have the right to insist on direct action being taken to deal with the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 What action could we take, even if we agreed that we should? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordonb Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 What action could we take, even if we agreed that we should? I suppose the actions available would depend on the views of the population and what they requested parliament to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 I suppose the actions available would depend on the views of the population and what they requested parliament to do. You misunderstand me. I'm not asking what actions should be made legally available. I'm asking what is it physically possible to do that would prevent the problem? It's pointless to debate whether or not action should be taken, unless we first find out whether or not there is any action that would work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzo77 Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 If we were talking about any other drug other than alcohol peoples views would be quite different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 If we were talking about any other drug other than alcohol peoples views would be quite different. The problem, though, would still be exactly the same. What can you do to prevent it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordonb Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 You misunderstand me. I'm not asking what actions should be made legally available. I'm asking what is it physically possible to do that would prevent the problem? It's pointless to debate whether or not action should be taken, unless we first find out whether or not there is any action that would work. If we look back to the days of drink and drive it was accepted as normal behavior which over the years has become socially un-acceptable. There will always be the person who drinks and drives and they end up when caught being dealt with via the judicial system as Parliament stepped in with the drink drive laws. Could this be a similar situation? Could there be drink, pregnancy laws? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Could this be a similar situation? Could there be drink, pregnancy laws? They could only be used to punish the mother. They wouldn't stop the damaged child from being born and needing assistance out of public funds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzo77 Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 The problem, though, would still be exactly the same. What can you do to prevent it? Education. It's as simple as that. People need to be aware of the effects that alcohol can have in extreme cases. People need to know this from an early age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medusa Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Women who are addicted to alcohol may not be able to stop drinking when pregnant, irrelevant of what information or learning they may have though, and even if they were taken by force into some form of detention centre for the duration of the pregnancy then either the damage to the foetus could be already present from very early gestational alcohol drinking, or the acute withdrawal from alcohol could cause further problems for the poor baby. As said by HN, women who drink too much during pregnancy are usually picked up later in pregnancy or even after the birth of their babies, which still means that the children are going to be born. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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