Why Would Pregnant Women Need To Be Paid To Stop Them Smoking?

[ToraToraTora]

https://news.sky.com/story/one-million-smokers-to-be-offered-vape-starter-kits-as-part-of-government-swap-to-stop-scheme-12854821
....so they don't care enough about their unborn child to do it anyway?

[drmorgans]

Good idea really, pay them and give them vapes to wean them off fags. Except they'll spend the money on fags and sell the vapes to their mates so they can buy voddy. Or so the lady on the bus told me.

[Gromit]

They are not paying them anything?

They have an harmful addiction, and they are being offered something instead which is more healthy.
The NHS spends £100 Million each year on Statins. Do you think that is a waste of money ?

[chelle7272]

Because it's not an easy habit to break.

[ToraToraTora]

gromit; "They are not paying them anything?"
the first sentence says:
//Pregnant women will be offered up to £400 to stop smoking as part of a push the government has said is "the first of its kind in the world".//

[ToraToraTora]

chelle: "Because it's not an easy habit to break. " - I'd have thought that protecting your own child would override it.

[Gromit]

TTT
Are you on another planet, or are you just very ignorant ?

[douglas9401]

//Campaigners called the measures "welcome steps in the right direction" but said they are "nowhere near sufficient".//

Nothing's ever enough is it? Bloody 'campaigners'.

[barry1010]

What are 'they' doing about FASD?
That is just as debilitating, if not more so, as the effects of smoking during pregnancy

[chelle7272]

I'm sure for some it is enough, but a physical habit is very hard to stop, feeling maternal won't stop cravings.
You can't see or feel the baby in early stages so it's hard for that to be enough versus cravings you are struggling with constantly.
If they can offer an alternative so pregnant women don't need to feel guilty for giving in to those cravings at times on top of everything else then that's a good thing.

[ToraToraTora]

gromit: "TTT
Are you on another planet, or are you just very ignorant ? " - Neither but you seem to be both. The article says they will give up to £400 to pregnant women to stop smoking. What about that sentence are you struggling with?

[andy-hughes]

TTT - // ....so they don't care enough about their unborn child to do it anyway? //

That falls into the very simple trap that a large number of intelligent rational people assume - that everyone else is as intelligent and rational as they are.

Clearly they are not.

If you start from the premise that anyone, of any age or gender, who starts smoking, is not in full possession of their faculties - because people who are, do not embark on such a pointless dangerous expensive unattractive habit in the first place - then you can see that thinking ahead and reasoning and making rational decisions are aspects of life that some people simply do not possess.

Nonetheless, as a caring society, there is not a cut-off point for intelligent thinking, beyond which we simple abandon people to the fate of their poor choices.

Instead, we attempt to assist and educate, and that is what this programme is about.

[New Judge]

//They have an harmful addiction, and they are being offered something instead which is more healthy.//

Don't you mean "...something instead which is (allegedly) less unhealthy"?

[andy-hughes]

NJ - // Don't you mean "...something instead which is (allegedly) less unhealthy"? //

A subtle, but essential distinction.

[david small]

You’ve got to love Andy-hughes. Such succinct and logical reply’s to a myriad of questions. Andy, you are a star shining brightest in a overwhelming firmament.

[barry1010]

The Sky report isn't clear but the government website states:
"In a speech today, Health Minister Neil O’Brien will also announce that following the success of local schemes, pregnant women will be offered financial incentives to help them stop smoking. This will involve offering vouchers, alongside behavioural support, to all pregnant women who smoke by the end of next year."

So it looks as if pregnant women will be offered free vapes, support and vouchers, not hard cash.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/smokers-urged-to-swap-cigarettes-for-vapes-in-world-first-scheme

[andy-hughes]

barry - // So it looks as if pregnant women will be offered free vapes, support and vouchers, not hard cash. //

I wouldn't imagine that anyone with even a basic acquaintance of the way government policies work, would imagine that cash as going to be offered.

But that doesn't stop the media making it look like that, because it gets a lot of people into instant meltdown, and it sells papers,

[cashier]

I thought there was a school of thought these days who say that vaping is equally as bad as smoking. They still don't know enough about it to know how dangerous or not it is.

[andy-hughes]

Maybe they are happy to try vaping, which may be harmful, as against smoking, which absolutely is.

[Old_Geezer]

One can always try for another kid, but where's the next £400 coming from ?

[Peter Pedant]

that everyone else is as intelligent and rational as they are.
oh dear, no

people think they are better and brighter than the common man and a lot of the time they are wrong.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a type of cognitive bias in which people believe they are smarter and more capable than they are.

https://www.verywellmind.com/an-overview-of-the-dunning-kruger-effect-4160740.

sort of scientific basis to, every trooper carries a field marshalls baton in his kit
or
the basis to - here let me do it - and they break it (my family excel at that)