Updated: 31 January 2013 | 6:35 am in conversations
Should mothers of babies who test positive for illegal drugs be charged criminally?
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Mothers who deliver babies that test positive for the presence of illegal drugs could be face criminal charges carrying significant jail time under a proposal making its way through the Iowa Legislature.
House Study Bill 49, which cleared a House subcommittee Wednesday, would create a new child endangerment offense resulting in bodily injury to a child or minor – a Class D felony that could carry a penalty of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $7,500. The offense would apply to action by the child’s mother that would be “a direct and foreseeable consequence” in causing an illegal drug to be present in the body of a newborn child.
Should mothers of babies who test positive for illegal drugs be charged as a criminal?
Rules of Engagement
Should mothers of babies who test positive for illegal drugs be charged criminally?
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No.
The drug policies practiced in the United States have led to nothing more than the United States having the highest incarceration rate in the world and a black market economy supplying drugs that is destroying the countries and people where it operates.
It’s time to seriously rethink our drug policies and this proposal is just more of the same old same old that has failed.
Forced rehabilitation, the retributive war on drugs has been a dismal failure! No changes have been tried as the war on drugs is big money.
It’s time to rethink our country’s policy on drugs. Portugal made most drugs legal 12 years ago. Drug use has gone down moderately and the cost of enforcing drug laws has gone down substantially. All in all, their policy has been a success. Other European countries are following suit.
Contrary to popular belief, those countries did not make drugs legal. Deciding to not arrest or prosecute small amount or personal use level instances is not legalizing. I guarantee you if Portugal found someone in possession of 100 pounds of heroin they would prosecute the heck out of them for that offense.
I dont see charging them criminally as an option but i think they should have to go through a mandatory treatment program and pay for it themselves! They are putting these innocent children at very heavy risk! Shame on these ladies!
The problem here, Mr Hagen, with your solution is that you are advocating forcing individuals to accept medical care whether they want it or not. That’s illegal. Also unconstitutional. Something to do with privacy.
The only thing that can be done would be to put such a child in foster care. It is possible for the state to intervene on behalf of a minor with regard to medical care
It’s a complicated issue. At what point does the state’s interest in protecting a child against possibly neglectful parents cross the line into undue meddling
Since the mother did nothing to harm a person there is no crime committed
Iowa law already recognizes that crimes can be committed against the unborn. Under section 707.7 and 708.8 of the Iowa, there are laws that protect a human fetus from harm. There ought to be a sanction for adults that harm children with their illegal drug use and the protections should cover the unborn as well.
I cant keep it straight. Sanctity of life. Unviable tissue mass. Does society have the power to protect life, or is the right of the mother to manage her body inviolate, as per SCOTUS?
It should depend on the drug, it is is a drug like heroin or meth or coke, they need to have treatment paid for by the county. If is just pot, then there should be nothing done as that can be inhaled out of the air without participating.
Obviously the author of this bill has learned nothing from the disaster called the war on drugs. Criminalizing it does nothing to solve the problem, and it isn’t a deterrent. Two things will happen: women will be afraid to go for prenatal care, so both the mother and baby suffer. Secondly, tax payers will be forced to pay for more prison beds, because they’ll be busy filling them as quickly as possible. Sooner or later our law makers need to wake up to the fact that not every problem in society can be solved by throwing people in prison and putting babies in foster care. They also need to realize they’re trying to deal with a situation by force, and that often backfires. The more intelligent course would be to require the mother to enter a program to get off drugs. Criminalizing addiction hasn’t worked in the past, and there’s no reason to believe it will work now. Judging by some of the hair-brained ideas they come up with, I’m beginning to believe they don’t want to solve the problems, they just want the power and control. I also find it interesting that they’re all for criminalizing this and that, yet when one of their own gets into hot water, suddenly they sing a very different tune. The “tough on crime” stance is nothing more than a vehicle to gather votes. Our prisons are filled to the max now, yet crime hasn’t gone down. We need to find a viable solution, because it’s very clear our present methods are a failure.
How are you going to require them to enter a treatment program? Many of which are almost like prison with intensive in-house therapy. You don’t think that would turn a few prospects away because you’re requiring them? Regardless of your method or locking them up in prison, the kids will undoubtedly end up in foster care as wards of the state or passed around relatives.
Addiction is a terrible disease and one that likely will not be cured in most people. Its the price these children will pay for their parents(mothers) choice to get high. Unfortunately the joyous event of having a child isn’t a motivating factor in many addicts lives to keep clean and reform themselves. Legal or illegal, drugs are terrible for family building so nothing anyone does about it is really going to change the problem. Unless you want to get really radical and go the quality controlled reproduction route.