Another Floodgate Opening?

[Svejk]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29614413

[ummmm]

I really don't know.

Is the payout for children that are in care? If a mother abused alcohol whilst pregnant but brings her child up herself who will claim compo then?

It's not going to work, is it?

[-Talbot-]

Question Author
'I've had a *** life, our dad left when I was little, where's my compo'.


Well he died in 1999, svejk (I had no idea that he was your dad)

[Svejk]

Is it cos I dress like him, Talbot?

[anotheoldgit]

Should be made illegal just as drink driving is, an innocent life can be ruined just as it can by driving under the influence.

[Svejk]

But that means we'd have to pay the 'victims', aog. Like I say, where do these things end?

[ummmm]

And we have women that don't know they are pregnant.

If a woman has irregular periods it could easily happen.

[bednobs]

i didn't think the case had happened yet?

[EDDIE51]

Ummmm the case is that the child should receive compensation as 'A victim of crime' I can not see where a crime has been committed .
The idea that it should be illegal to sell alcohol to a pregnant woman has come up on AB previously.
I have a personal licence to sell alcohol, if I suspect that a person is under 18 I MUST BY LAW require them to prove they are over 18 before I can serve them. If it did become law not to sell alcohol to a pregnant woman, I would have to ask any woman who looked of childbearing age to prove she was not pregnant before I served her. How could I do that? A doctors certificate would be useless as she could have got pregnant after getting the certificate. I can only say that the woman would have to be accompanied to the toilet to do a pregnancy test in view of a member of staff (presumably the pub / bar/ shop would need to employ female staff specifically to do this duty) before she was sold a drink.

[jourdain2]

This was a mother who drank very, very heavily throughout pregnancy and was warned of the risks as far as I can glean. I can see no harm in the occasional drink in pregnancy, I had the odd beer or glass of wine and my babies were fine. When I was pregnant I was even told I could smoke as long as I kept the ciggies to below 10 a day (I gave up smoking, it was easier) but since you didn't find out if you were pregnant for several months in those days any harm would already have been done. It's o.t.t. to say no alcohol for 9 months - or more if you breast-feed-IMO.

[EDDIE51]

No matter how much the woman drank I still can not see how a 'crime' comes into it. The case is that the child should be compensated as 'a victim of crime' . Surely that would only be if the child had been injured as a result of an assault or robbery.

[jourdain2]

I don't think there's a 'crime' either Eddie. I was just trying to point out that to criminalise women for having an occasional drink whilst pregnant is o.t.t. and is a 'hammer to a nut' reaction to a hard case.

[ummmm]

Eddie....I know exactly what you're saying. Like drink driving it would be much easier to advise zero alcohol (except medication) and then everyone knows where they stand.

[EDDIE51]

A news item last night made this clearer , the lawyers are trying to make a case that the Mum drinking so much amounted to 'administering a noxious substance' to the unborn child. That would be a crime. She apparently drank 1/2 a bottle of vodka and 6 cans of larger a day for the entire pregnancy. If this case succeeds it will set several precedents, as well as making the mother a criminal it will have to establish that an unborn child is a person with their own 'rights' , such as the right to grow up without being poisoned. It would also of course then be possible to say that smoking during pregnancy is a criminal offence.
There are already 80 more cases waiting for the outcome of this to claim compensation.