Drink and pregnancy: a legal contradiction

ALCOHOL is very often a factor in assault cases, and in some cases involving women, the victims or perpetrators of assaults have been under the influence of alcohol while pregnant.

In our society, once a child is born, it is illegal to give it alcohol or any other recreational drug.

However, prior to its birth in fact right up until the hour before it is delivered - it is legally acceptable to 'nurture' the unborn child with alcohol, narcotics or other substances.

Excessive consumption of alcohol by a pregnant woman is associated with a wide variety of mental and physical problems in the child, since alcohol enters the child's bloodstream in approximately the same concentration as is present in the mother's blood.

If it is legally unacceptable deliberately to harm a child once it is born, why is it deemed legally acceptable to do so during the first nine months of the child's life when it is most vulnerable?

Mari O'Sullivan

Bridgestown

Cloghroe

Co Cork