According to Newstalk ZB;
The Maori Heart Foundation is hitting out at women who smoke during pregnancy, describing their actions as 'child abuse'.
The Foundation says around half of Maori women are smokers and almost all of them continue to smoke while pregnant.
Chief executive Mary McCulloch says even worse, a pregnant woman who quits smoking is often exposed to secondhand smoke by her whanau.
She says research clearly shows smoking results in physical injury to children. Under the legal definition, she says there is no doubt smoking constitutes child abuse.
I have a problem with this. Are we to call CYFS whenever we spot a pregnant woman smoking? Is it a punishable offence? Is it illegal?
By all means try to persuade women away from tobacco but where is the practical use in defining it as child abuse?
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3 comments:
You should have no problem at all calling a spade a spade, Lindsay. Read Liberty Scott's recent piece on this. I quote, "Smoking, taking drugs or drinking alcohol when you know you are pregnant is child abuse if the pregnancy goes full term. Simple as that." So simple that it almost amounts to a libertarian argument for mandatory warning labels on alcoholic drinks.
The libertarian view of rights ending at ones nose becomes somewhat confused when you try to consider the rights of an unborn baby versus that of the mother...
What? Maori Heart Foundation? I want my bigoted white male rapist Heart Foundation as well!
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