Posted on 03/07/2010 4:52:11 PM PST by cajuncow
LOCKED in the grip of drug addiction, the only thing mum-of-nine Felicia LeMay cared about was getting her next hit of crystal meth. The victims of her deadly habit included her baby son, who was born hooked on the drug and put straight into care by social workers.
But the birth helped create a turning point in Felicia's life, and when she fell pregnant again she agreed to take part in a controversial sterilisation scheme which has caused a storm in America - and could be about to hit Britain.
US campaigner Barbara Harris runs Project Prevention - a group which pays drug addicts $300 (about £200) to be sterilised so they cannot have any more children.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesun.co.uk ...
You think it is whiny to complain about spending $30,000 not to mention the emotional investment and get nothing in return? I think I might be more than whiny!
We have dear friends that are in similar situation. They were at the hospital to pick up their baby when they were told they weren’t allowed in the room. The mother changed her mind. My friends gave the woman everything they had purchased for the baby. They are very good people! They have had several disappointing and costly experiences.
I understand about wanting a newborn. It takes a special calling to adopt out of the foster care system. Some of those kids have been through horrible things and will need lots of special care. I am not sure I have that calling. We will adopt after we are finished having our own.
I would never DREAM of telling someone who was not able to have their own children and lost a hell of a lot of upfront money AND WENT THROUGH HELL trying to become parents that they just needed a better lawyer. As a matter of fact....about the only appropriate thing I can think of to say in their case is, "I'm very sorry."
The fact is, adoption isn't always that simple. I wish that it were, but it's not.
Congratulations to you and YOUR family. I'm very glad it worked out well for YOU!
So, can we sent the bills for her, and the other addict breeders, whelps, to you?
My kids' girlscout leader adopted two girls from the foster care system and while the family is doing well, those girls were horribly abused and neglected prior. As a matter of fact, they were discovered after the oldest (6yrs at the time) broke a window to get into a neighbors house looking for food and to give one of the younger boys a bath. The police were called on a burglary call. Their parents left them alone in a house with no water or electricity for days. And that's just the part that got the authorities attention drawn to them. The story is much worse but they are trying to focus on better times ahead. ;)
It doesn’t make it right to sterilize them. This is the same argument that was used to sterilize disabled people because our kids would never amount to anything.
Wow, why don’t we just kill the ‘addict breeders’?
I will be praying that you are healed of your ignorance and narrow-mindedness.
A little off-subject here, but British terminology about pregnancy is very revealing. Fell pregnant, like fell ill. I once heard an English woman touting the NHS because "no one ever has to go pregnant." Go pregnant, like go barefoot.
I am glad those children have a safe home now. It takes a special family to deal with the aftermath of abuse and neglect.
The difference is that those sterilizations were forced and these are voluntary.
No difference here. Why are we paying people to get sterilized? It’s bad policy. We are treating sterilization as an end in itself.
The goal should be treatment. Get these people the help they need, not the help they don’t. Yes, it might be difficult to get off the meth, but wouldn’t everyone be better off if they succeeded in doing so?
We are paying women to be sterilized because drug addicts do not make good parents, their children clog the foster care system and are often permenently damaged by the drugs and chaotic life.
We should also pay to sterilize the severely mentally ill, for their children are also neglected and damaged by the drugs and chaotic life.
Nothing that we can do will change the fact that there are addicts and severely mentally ill people who need care. But we do not need generations upon generations of them.
Why don’t we pay disabled people to get sterilized, or for that matter, anyone at all?
We aren’t paying people to get sterilized. This is a private citizen not public policy. There are treatment programs out there but until someone wants treatment you can’t force them into it. Yes everyone would be better off if these women get off meth but until the time that they do this is one way to keep them from ruining the lives of future children.
“No difference here”
Are you saying there is no difference in a mentally handicapped person being forced against their will to be sterilized and a meth addict choosing to go through with it for money? I am not sure what you mean and the question is purely for my understanding.
I guess the question that I have to ask is that if someone isn’t capable of looking after their children, are they also considered responsible for their own actions? Can they truly consent to sterilization, if they know that the 300 pounds can mean their next fix? Why not call the program, “Get fixed for your fix?”
Why?
There is a big difference between a disabled person who is able to raise and care for their children and a drug addict or severely mentally ill person who is not able.
One is a temporary condition which can be treated, the other is not.
Why not put 200 pounds into a treatment centre or taking their children in for adoption? I agree that it’s a problem, but the solution is not to sterilize someone. That does nothing to solve the underlying problem of drug addiction. Basically, you are writing someone off.
Why not put 200 pounds into a treatment centre or taking their children in for adoption? I agree that it’s a problem, but the solution is not to sterilize someone. That does nothing to solve the underlying problem of drug addiction. Basically, you are writing someone off.
Treatment centers have very small success rates. MOst addicions are not temporary situations. THey children are prenatal messes. Yes I am writing off their reproductive futures. There are better and more productive places. We spend a lot of money on the lower fourth of the normal curve.
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