Reply #129: I went to a seminar on babies born to alcohol and drug addicted

[phylny]

mothers. Being born after exposure to crack in the womb was about as bad as it gets for babies. Interestingly, being born to an alcoholic who was drinking during pregnancy was also devastating to the developing fetus/resulting baby - and being born addicted to heroin did damage, but less than you'd think.

I worked with some of these kids in school (I'm a speech-language pathologist) and to say that they're affected is putting it quite mildly. The resulting mental retardation, ADHD and fetal alcohol syndrome is no picnic for these children, and they never have a chance to develop fully.

In my view, what should happen to parents who abuse their kids this way (and it is abuse, in my view) is jail and a rehab program. I don't know that I'm comfortable with telling someone that they can't have children...but I work with some families where I think it wouldn't be such a bad idea - NOT from a "society shouldn't have to pay for these children" but from the perspective of the kids born under these circumstances who have to suffer the consequences.