English 1022
Brian Lewis
To test or not to test?
When a mother becomes pregnant she wants to keep her baby as healthy and safe as she can while it is in the womb. When mothers go to the doctor for their daily check ups on the baby, sometimes taking a urine test is a must. The results of the urine test sometimes turn out to be tested positive for drug use, and then some hospitals turn it over to the police. Now the controversy is should mothers be tested for drug use when they are pregnant or is it discriminatory and against the rights of the fourth amendment? I for one believe that it can be both a must and discriminatory. I feel that it is both because I do think that mothers should be put into treatment because they are not only hurting themselves by being on drugs but they are hurting the fetus too. But also some doctors are getting these positive urine tests back and only handing in the ones to the police who are lower class, or of a different nationality, and I don’t think that’s right. Every nationality and class status should be reported because they are potentially hurting another person too.
Many people believe that prosecuting a mother for using any type of drugs while being pregnant isn’t fair for many reasons. I believe that a mother shouldn’t get prosecuted but she immediately be put into treatment for her and her baby’s sake. Many people think urine testing on pregnant women is against the fourth amendment. The fourth amendment protects searches against citizen’s houses, persons, papers, and effects, not against urine testing which someone has passed and then abandoned it for medical reasons. When a mother goes to the doctor and the doctor asks for a urine sample if they are free willing to give it up they can be giving up the evidence if any is found, and then there wouldn’t be any privacy to invade. When some of the samples of urine were turned into the police the districts courts said, “the testing policy wasn’t to arrest patients, but to facilitate their treatment and protect both the mother and unborn child" (Testing Pregnant Women…Constitutional). The point of taking urine tests is to have an immediate response to the mother and her baby, instead of letting the drug abuse hurt the baby even if the mother doesn’t care. Getting mothers into drug treatment is the main importance on taking these urine tests. When some doctors and nurses agreed to providing the police with the positive urine tests it was 1) to report child abuse and 2) to have arrests be a very strong incentive for wanting women to stop abusing drugs while being pregnant, and get themselves into treatment (Testing Pregnant Women…Constitutional).
Scalia, Rehnquist and Clarence Thomas. "Testing Pregnant Women for
Drug Abuse Is Constitutional." San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing
Viewpoints Resource Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2010
I can agree with what you are saying about discriminatory to a pregnant mother. you shouldnt just assume that mothers are hurting their fetus, but it is good to test every mother that is pregnant. it will help the baby out, and the mothers should watch how they are caring for their fetus. also, that is a good point about the race issue. however, they should test pregnant mothers of all race and class title. it should become a must do while being pregnant no matter who you are or where you come from. endangering the fetus is creul and the baby cannot control the outcome or how it might grow up in the future with problems, that the mother has passed on to the fetus. we can control this by testing pregnant women, to save children from getting FAS or other disorders do to the mother and her drug or alcohol use.
ReplyDeleteThat is true that we should be testing all women no matter what, but sometimes it isnt all the easy because sometimes hosptals that get the postitive drug tests report these to social services, and because that mother maybe a different nationality or lower social status they think its rasist. When actually it is just to help the mother and her baby. You keep mentioning that they NEED to test, test, test but the problem is that once a drug addicted mother finds out she will have to do urine tests she will stop coming to her daily pre-natal check ups, and then what? Not only that, urine tests are $19 dollars a time and can get quit expensive the more and more that are done especially the ones that are positive, so in some way why would we want to keep spending all this money if the mothers are not even helping themseves? (Harris 42).
ReplyDeleteHarris, Wesley J. "Get your hands off my urine." search.ebscohost.com.cenproxy.mnpals.net. Points of View Reference Center, Apr2009, Vol. 23 Issue 3, p41-44. Web. 30, Jan. 2009.