enerbol and Neonatal-Abstinence-Syndrome

This article examines the debates surrounding the personhood of the fetus in relationship to the mother as these issues were socially constructed in the Mississippi state legislature in 1990 and 1991. In examining the patriarchal assumptions that underlay the proposed Mississippi legislation, the article also addresses the legal ramifications of defining the fetus as a person whose rights are posited as equal to, or greater than, those of the pregnant woman. By relying on medical/scientific definitions of personhood, the groundwork for further refinement and monitoring of women and fetuses is being established, such that what it means to be human is increasingly defined in essentialist terms. In the final evaluation, focusing on conception as the moment in which an "unborn child" is created sets the stage for the ultimate essentialist metaphor: a eugenic definition of personhood.

Topics: Abortion, Legal; Beginning of Human Life; Child Abuse; Child Advocacy; Existentialism; Female; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Labor, Obstetric; Life; Male; Mississippi; Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome; Personhood; Pregnancy; Pregnant Women; Sex Determination Analysis; Value of Life

A survey of 523 college undergraduates regarding a pregnant woman's culpability for the use of specific drugs during pregnancy indicated that a rank order of the relative safety of the drugs existed in the minds of the respondents. Tobacco, alcohol and aspirin were perceived as similar in their consequences to the fetus, while cocaine was considered to be the most deleterious and Accutane, the least deleterious. Although 75 percent would imprison a pregnant woman who used cocaine, only 16 percent would do so for the use of Accutane, a prescription drug. The 87 percent of the students who believed that the fetus was a child, were more likely to consider the use of the five drugs during pregnancy as a form of child abuse and were also more willing to imprison the "offending" women. It was suggested that drug education programs need to place more emphasis on the potentially deleterious consequences of prescribed medicines to the fetus.

Topics: Adult; Aspirin; Attitude; Beginning of Human Life; Civil Rights; Cocaine; Female; Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders; Humans; Illicit Drugs; Infant, Newborn; Liability, Legal; Life; Male; Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome; Pregnancy; Pregnant Women; Smoking; Smoking Prevention; Tretinoin