Ap#2

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QUESTION: Should pregnant women who are addicted to drugs (heroin, cocaine, prescription opioids, or any other commonly abused substances) and continue to use during their pregnancy be charged with endangering a child? In most cases, the authorities have no knowledge of the circumstances until the woman gives birth and the baby tests positive for harmful substances.

Begin by reading the following news articles. These articles ARE NOT relevant resources for your paper. They are provided for you to serve as an introduction of the topic. DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT use any part of these news articles in your argumentative paper.

There are scientific, legal, and law/statute/legislative/court decisions resources for you to use posted on Moodle. All reference entries must have either a doi or a web address.

NEWS ARTICLE 09/30/14 - KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — On a muggy day in May, the support group for pregnant women starts at 7 a.m. sharp, right after morning meds, at a methadone clinic in a dingy neighborhood here. Two patients, Mona and Jen (whose names have been changed to protect their privacy), are in an upstairs conference room. With them is a counselor and Zac Talbott from the National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery, or NAMA, a patients’ rights advocacy group. The gold standard of care for women who want to quit opiates like heroin or hydrocodone during pregnancy, methadone is itself a prescription opiate that works by reducing cravings and decreasing the risk of relapse. Most importantly, it eliminates withdrawal symptoms, which are especially dangerous for pregnant women because withdrawal can cause premature labor or stillbirth. Today, the group is talking about SB1391, a new state law that went into effect July 1 and gives prosecutors the power to jail women who give birth to babies “addicted to or harmed by” illegal drugs.

Talbott and NAMA are among a growing band of addiction specialists, doctors and advocates who are deeply apprehensive about the new law. While supporters of SB1391 say it will serve as an incentive to get pregnant addicts into rehab, they worry that women will stop seeking medical help for fear of being prosecuted. “Once word gets out, women won’t access prenatal care or treatment,” predicts Karen Pershing of Knoxville’s Metropolitan Drug Commission. “We’re going to see more negative birth outcomes than we’re seeing now. I’m also concerned about women not going to the hospital to deliver.”

Within a month of SB1391 going into effect, two women were charged under the law. Mallory Loyola, 26, of Madisonville, in eastern Tennessee, was charged with assault after she gave birth on July 6 to a baby girl who tested positive for amphetamine. Jamillah Falls, 30, of Memphis was charged with assault after delivering a baby girl who tested positive for heroin and marijuana.

Tennessee has the second-highest rate of prescription opiate consumption in the nation. Babies born to mothers who use opiates during pregnancy sometimes suffer from withdrawal at birth, crying inconsolably and having difficulty feeding. A few have seizures. This is called neonatal-abstinence syndrome, or NAS. If properly managed, NAS is a transient condition, treated with a tapering dose of opiates to wean the baby off the drugs without causing withdrawal. Dr. Robert Newman, president emeritus at New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center, says, “There has never been any evidence suggesting that [NAS] leads to lasting problems.”

Though 17 other states consider prenatal drug use to be a form of child abuse. Tennessee becomes the first to explicitly define harming a fetus with prenatal drug use as assault. Tennessee has had so-called fetus-as-victim laws on the books since 1989, after a drunken driver killed a woman who was eight months pregnant. The original law only applied to viable fetuses, but in 2011, it was broadened to include nonviable fetuses. In 2012, the state legislature expanded the definition of an assault or homicide victim to include an embryo at any stage of development. The newest version of the law contains no exception for a woman’s actions toward her own fetus, allowing the state to charge pregnant women with criminal endangering of a child born with harmful substances or even homicide if the fetus dies because of the harmful substances.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP 09/15/15) - A central Ohio grand jury has charged a mother with involuntary manslaughter and child endangering after her 14-month-old daughter died from ingesting heroin. Franklin County prosecutor Ron O'Brien announced that the grand jury indicted 31-year-old Erica Maria Barley in the death of daughter Annabella Sagstetter.

O'Brien said the toddler died May 27 when her mother took her to a "drug house" in Columbus and the child ingested heroin laced with fentanyl, a powerful painkiller. If convicted, Barley faces up to 11 years in prison.

COLLINGDALE, Pa. – 11/09/12 - The mother of a baby who died after ingesting heroin has been charged with murder in her son's death. Christine Rivero, 29, of Collingdale, Delaware County, is charged with murder in the death of 11-month-old Niccolo Varner. Toxicology reports revealed that the baby died because he ingested heroin.

According to police, Rivero initially told them she put the boy in the bath with his 5-year-old brother before he died. Later, however, she allegedly admitted to leaving the children unattended to meet with friends to do heroin. She returned to the house when the five-year-old started screaming that Niccolo had fallen in the tub.

Investigators initially thought the baby hit his head and drowned. But, since they found drug paraphernalia in the house, the coroner ordered toxicology tests. On Tuesday, he ruled that the child had died of acute heroin intoxication.

"We cannot, at this point in time, explain how the child ingested that level of heroin into his system, or whether he was given heroin directly by the mother," said Delaware County D.A. Jack Whelan.

Rivero is being held without bail on charges of third-degree murder, criminal homicide and involuntary manslaughter.