[Fasd_canadian_link] Seizing newborns an ethical minefield: New Brunswick

[Elspeth Ross]

"...studies in pediatric neurology suggest the most critical time a 
baby is affected by a mother with alcohol or drug problems is in the 
first three months of a pregnancy...."

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/775621
Telegraph-Journal
Saint John, New Brunswick

Seizing newborns an ethical minefield
Published Saturday August 29th, 2009
Protection Province has means, but using them controversial, ethicists say
Adam Huras
Telegraph-Journal

New Brunswick has numerous options in dealing with parents who may 
endanger the lives of their children, but any action the government 
takes could be controversial, according to two of the country's 
leading ethicists.

[Photo]
Canadian Press
Margaret Somerville

McGill University ethicist Margaret Somerville believes governments 
should consider laws to identify unborn children as human beings with 
the right to protection.

Arthur Schafer of the University of Manitoba warns that, if doctors 
and public health officials gradually become police officers, women 
who may be at risk of fatally harming their children will avoid 
seeking medical care all together.

New Brunswick's Child Death Review Committee on Thursday recommended 
the government find ways to deal with parents who are known to the 
Department of Social Development and are expecting a baby.

The Telegraph-Journal has learned the recommendation was in reaction 
to the January death of a newborn in the St. Stephen area.

The review committee's recommendation confirmed that the parents of 
the deceased infant were already known to the child protection 
services before the death occurred.

The baby's body was found in a wooded area behind the couple's home.

"One of the reasons why this area is so fraught with difficulty is 
because it lands right in the middle of the debate about what is 
acceptable in consideration of women," Somerville said. "I think we 
really need to think about our protection of children.

"What is happening here is the recognition that we have, as a 
community, to protect children after they are born."

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled on a Manitoba case in which an 
expecting mother was forced by child services to undergo treatment 
for addiction problems.

The court ruled that move infringed on the mother's rights.

An Ontario court case used the conduct of a mother during pregnancy 
to successfully prove her child would be in harm's way after birth. 
The child was taken from the mother after it was born.

Somerville, a world-renowned academic, also pointed out that in the 
United States there are several jurisdictions that prosecute women 
for the delivery of a toxic substance to another person during birth.

"But to do that you have to recognize that the fetus legally exists, 
where Canada so far says it doesn't," she said. "I think we should 
pass a law which at least gives some protection to fetuses as of 
viability (the shortest period of pregnancy after which a child born 
prematurely has any chance of survival).

"The thing is that politicians are absolutely terrified of touching 
any of these issues as everyone has different ideological views on this stuff."

The Supreme Court of Canada has consistently ruled that, under 
current laws, the fetus does not exist as a human being needing 
protection, and the Criminal Code holds that a child becomes a human 
being for the purposes of a homicide offence only after it is born alive.

Schafer, who has written on the Manitoba Supreme Court of Canada 
case, discredits the consideration of legal action.

"Legally, a pregnant woman cannot be incarcerated or deprived of her 
liberty prior to birth in order to protect the fetus or baby who will 
be born," Schafer said. "Many people think the welfare of the child 
should come first before the liberty of the woman, if she so abuses 
her responsibility to the fetus.

"My argument is that attempting to imprison pregnant women with the 
goal of protecting the fetus is counterproductive."

Schafer said studies in pediatric neurology suggest the most critical 
time a baby is affected by a mother with alcohol or drug problems is 
in the first three months of a pregnancy.

"Apprehending a mother five months after she has already been glue 
sniffing or binge drinking, or consuming crack cocaine, is usually 
unlikely to protect the baby," he said. "And, if you turn doctors and 
public health officials into police officers, a community of at risk 
women will avoid seeking medical care and that puts them even more at risk.

"It doesn't work and indeed it works in reverse."

Schafer said there is a lot that can be done by governments through 
social policy.

"Providing economic subsidies, free milk and juice, counselling, 
substance abuse centres," he said. "If you want to ask what 
governments can do, there are tons of things governments can do along 
those lines.

"It's good social policy that will save the lives."

Dealing directly with sexual abuse and child poverty are other 
suggestions, Schafer said.

Both ethicists said they support the idea of "safe haven" bill, such 
as the one proposed by the Opposition Tories in New Brunswick during 
the last legislative sitting.

If passed, the bill would allow a mother to leave her baby - within 
72 hours of birth - at a local emergency room in the care of a doctor or nurse.

It would also legislate that no questions would be asked of parents 
and no legal action would be pursued for abandoning the infant.

The baby would then be put up for adoption.

The ethicists agree, however, that the law does nothing pre-emptive 
in dealing with expecting parents already known to child protection services.

Bernard Richard, New Brunswick ombudsman and child and youth 
advocate, said Thursday he has put three of his staff on a 
fact-finding mission to aid the government in responding the Child 
Death Review Committee's recommendation.

Somerville said that any changes made by the Department of Social 
Development should leave behind personal beliefs and focus on the 
potential for the greatest good.

"No matter what our ideological positions on this issue are, it is 
preferable for everybody that, as far as possible, everything be 
voluntary and not coerced," Somerville said.

"For something to be voluntary you have to have support and 
compassionate, adequate services available."
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