Protecting the unborn child from drug abuse

I refer to Ruth Farrugia's letter Policing Pregnancy Is Not An Answer (February 13). I fully agree that "the right of the child to life requires an affirmative action to promote healthly conceptions, pregnancy and a safe delivery". I know the Malta Unborn Child Movement has been promoting "green pregnancies" for a long time.

"A legal duty to guarantee the mental and physical health of a child in the womb has never before been recognised in law," writes Dr Farrugia. If, some years back, the Persiano and Borg cases before the local courts were specifically decided in favour of protecting the lives of unborn children from death through abortion, why not also provide legal protection of the mental and physical health of the child in the womb?

It is generally agreed that offering care and support to expectant mothers (and fathers for that matter) is a much better response. But it is also a fact, that there are mothers and fathers who are not "competent to make their own decisions." More than 250 care orders were made so far, specifically, to give proper care to born children because their parents were considered not competent to do so.

A care order in the case of unborn children is not considered a practicable solution especially if the mother is over 18, is married and has other children.

On the other hand, one wonders why a treatment order on the biological parent/s was not resorted to also in the cases of so many born children who were taken from the care of their parents and settled elsewhere... even if temporarily.

A care order is not meant to last until the child is 18, but can be removed when the situation at the home of the natural parents improves and the parents are considered competent to take proper care of their child.

The Minister of Justice has just announced that the government will make it a crime to refuse a breathalyser test, with those turning it down being deemed guilty of driving under the influence of drink. It seems this latter action will even be based on an assumption and not proven facts! The minister did not say, and probably would not say, that pregnant women would be exempted from the breathalyser test. They, too, will be directly "policed" against excessive drinking while driving which could, and would, be a threat to the life and limb of so many people in the streets, to the pregnant women themselves and to their own unborn children! The minister also increased the punishment for multiple deaths caused by drink driving. All this will surely curtail "the rights of pregnant women to self-determination and autonomy of their own body".

As a social worker in the department of family welfare I have worked with cases of children born with very severe physical and mental disabilties, with a lot of evidence pointing to excessive substance abuse by pregnant mothers, and fathers, before, and especially during pregnancy in the case of mothers, as the cause of their children's disablities.

Dr Farrrugia insists treatment orders should be resorted to "as a last resort". Surely Dr Anna Maria Vella of Sedqa knows, as a medical practitioner, when "the last resort" should be resorted to, especially with the exponential increase in the consumption of alcohol and drugs by our young generation and the corresponding increase in the number of teenage and other pregnancies.

Which medical authority in Malta is going to tell us how many newborns are being born with multiple disablities because of substance abuse by their parents before and during pregancies? We ought to know. Maltese society has a right to know.

So many unborn children are at great risk from substance abuse by their parents during the pregnancy and must be proteced from any potential harm to their bodies and their lives.

This time the Domestic Violence Law, Act No. XX of 2005, is very specific, in Article 2 ix, about protecting also unborn children from "any act of violence".

I admire the social workers at Agenzija Appoġġ who have expressed their deep concern about the health and lives of so many unborn children to Edwin Vassallo, the president of the Social Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, because of the excessive substance abuse during pregnancies by parents of unborn children. I also admire Mr Vassallo, and the other members of the Social Affairs Committee, for deciding to do something concrete about this very delicate social problem.