Smoking During Pregnancy and the Rights of the Foetus

[Magrus]

I hated it myself, but I had to literally beat sense into my younger brother regarding it. He never had the health problem I had from it and didn't see anything wrong with snagging one of our parents cig's and lighting up to "be like dad". I could be wrong, but that seems like it could be all too common. Not to say that kids will pick it up to fit in and be "cool" at school regardless of their parents. Still, a lot of the kids I know who smoke pot do so because they found mom or dads bag in the house somewhere and decided to try it out since it was there you know?

[jopperm2]

Here's my position for those that don't know.

I'm not copmpletely for or against abortion. I don't like it. I would never make that choice if it were mine to make. I don't think people should use it for birth control. If there is a serious problem, a rape, a very young girl who is just plain irresponsible, then I can support well-regulated, hard to get, abortions. In my more conservative and zealous days I was in favor of mandatory sterilization after all non-birth abortions. I'm more sensitive these days.

Here's the deal though. I think you should have a certain amount of time to make up your mind and after that you have to stick to your decision. I don't know enough about obstetrics to know when that timeframe is, but I'm sure it's probably already established. No smoking, drugs, alchohol, caffeine, household cleaners, etc. and mandatory prenatal vitamins until you make your choice. If you decide to carry then you have to keep those rules. If you decide to abort, fine.

I know that's pretty fascist of me but I have a real soft spot for babies and a real hatred of most everyone else.

[Magrus]

I got bored yesterday and decided to figure out how much a mother would spend on cigarettes where I live through the first 18 years of her child's life. If anyone's interested, I did a little projection for it with some guess work on price changes over the next 18 years based on how things are here in NY. I went with an average of 1 pack a day and went with the cheap cigarettes for NY to start with and a $.25 increase per year for inflation, taxes, etc.

As a reference, my mother spends roughly $25-30 a week to feed my younger brother.

1 $4.50/pack= $31.50/week= $1638/year
2 $4.75/pack= $33.25/week= $1729/year
3 $5.00/pack= $35.00/week= $1820/year
4 $5.25/pack= $36.75/week= $1911/year
5 $5.50/pack= $38.50/week= $2002/year
6 $5.75/pack= $40.25/week= $2093/year
7 $6.00/pack= $42.00/week= $2184/year
8 $6.25/pack= $43.75/week= $2275/year
9 $6.50/pack= $45.50/week= $2366/year
10 $6.75/pack= $47.25/week= $2457/year
11 $7.00/pack= $49.00/week= $2548/year
12 $7.25/pack= $50.75/week= $2639/year
13 $7.50/pack= $52.50/week= $2730/year
14 $7.75/pack= $54.25/week= $2821/year
15 $8.00/pack= $56.00/week= $2912/year
16 $8.25/pack= $57.75/week= $3003/year
17 $8.50/pack= $59.50/week= $3094/year
18 $8.75/pack= $61.25/week= $3185/year
-----------------------------------------
Total= $40313 over 18 years for one parent smoking.

Now, this has no correlation to actual health of a child, however, it does affect their future indirectly. Given this, a single child of two parents who smoke, those parents blew 80,000 dollars in his/her lifetime on cigarrettes. The parents who didn't, can we say bacheler's degree?

[Denethorn]

Hate to say this but have you ever considered the expense of your drinking

Not arguing with you, but there are a plurality of other drains on household income. Smoking is one of the worst, but booze, fuel, food, TV/internet costs all add up to masses amount of money in the long run.

Smoking definately be called one of the more pointless wastes of income, but we all over indulge in certain aspects of our life which results in "wasted" money.

I think it'd actually be fun to see how much one spent on alcohol a week to be fair . And lets face it, alcohol is another important aspect of life which a responsible mother should consider when she finds out she's pregnant.

[Magrus]

Oh most definately, aside from special occasions, I budget $40 a month on booze. Special parties I set aside extra money just for them, but I have friends who spend more on smoking in a weekend when drinking than I do on most months drinking altogether.

Then again, I'm not a parent. I stay sober when I watch my friends baby, but I'm no one's parent. I may have to play the father figure for some of my friends, but they aren't truly my responsibility.

If I was, plain and simple, I wouldn't drink around my children until they were old enough to understand the effects of drinking, and be able to take care of themselves. Not to mention I'd see to it there was at least one sober adult around to take care of them. I.E., their mother, or a friend who offered to be sober at a get-together at the house and it was fine with them to watch my children as well. I dealt with an abusive alcoholic father who used to take my brother and I out for "quality guy time" so he could go empty a keg at his buddies house and bring us home around 3 am when we were 7. Not something I'd ever put my kids through.

[VonDondu]

Originally Posted by Denethorn

Not arguing with you, but there are a plurality of other drains on household income. Smoking is one of the worst, but booze, fuel, food, TV/internet costs all add up to masses amount of money in the long run.

Don't forget cellphones. I can't believe how much money people fork over to the telcos.

[C Elegans]

Originally Posted by Ned Flanders

Smoking during pregnancy, I suppose, has been shown to be a bad thing.

Smoking during pregnancy is associated with lower birth weight and increased risk for early asthma and disease related to the production of blood cells. There is no doubt smoking during pregnancy is a health risk for the child, although not as severely harmful as alcohol.

I can't see a relationship to abortion at all - if you don't want to have a child, do an abortion. If you want to have a child, don't drink, smoke, take other drugs, use harmful medicines, eat harmful food etc during pregnancy.

[Xanidu]

Abortion is a cruel thing! If you dont want to have a child, dont have sex or just make sure you use protection. I can see an abortion as a possible soulition where the woman is rapped and is impregnated or if the pregnancy might cause harm to the mother, but abortion should never be used as a way to have all the sex you want and never pay cosequences for it, good or bad.