Essay
Essay
The use of illicit drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and other amphetamines pose a risk to the health of both the pregnant woman and her baby. Drugs cause a risk of premature birth, birth of a child with low birth weight, development of withdrawal syndrome, birth defects, and abnormalities in the child's mental development (Boyd & Bee, 2015).
Prosecution against women for the use of illicit drugs during pregnancy has occurred in thirty states. During the 1980s, a new criminal justice trend appeared: pregnant women who had used drugs and gave birth to drug-exposed babies were found guilty of committing different offences such as criminal neglect, giving drugs to a minor, manslaughter, and attempted murder (McGinnis, “Prosecution of Mothers of Drug-Exposed Babies”).
American Justice set a precedent: for the first time charged with the woman who gave birth to a stillborn child(Kampschmidt, 2015). The experts found that the 27-year-old resident of Oklahoma, Theresa Hernandez, was using illicit drugs during pregnancy. As a result, the fetus died. The child was 32 weeks. According to the laws of Oklahoma fetus older than 24 weeks is considered viable, and has the right to life. So Hernandez actions are considered a crime. Representatives of Oklahoma prosecutors announced that for the first time they have been able to prove the guilt of the mother in the death of the unborn child.
The pros of such law are in preventing the use of drugs by pregnant women. Fetal protection law encourages women to stop using drugs before and during pregnancy due to the fear of prosecution and jail time, or having their children taken away.
The cons of such law are in scaring the pregnant drug addicts from getting help and going to rehabilitation centers because of the fear of being prosecuted (Boyd & Bee, 2015).
As we can see, this law has a lot of contradictory factors that should be considered.
References
Boyd, D. & Bee, H. (2015). Lifespan Development (7th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. ISBN 10: 0-13-380566-2.
Kampschmidt, E. D. (2015). Prosecuting Women for Drug Use During Pregnancy: The Criminal Justice System Should Step Out and the Affordable Care Act Should Step Up. Health Matrix: The Journal of LawMedicine, Vol. 25.
McGinnis, D. M. Prosecution of Mothers of Drug-Exposed Babies. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 139:505.
