Castrations In The UK

[bobbie (imported)]

Time to be a drug addict?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11545519

Charity offers UK drug addicts £200 to be sterilised

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Drug addicts across the UK are being offered money to be sterilised by an American charity.

Project Prevention is offering to pay £200 to any drug user in London, Glasgow, Bristol, Leicester and parts of Wales who agrees to be operated on.

The first person in the UK to accept the cash is drug addict "John" from Leicester who says he "should never be a father".

The move has been criticised by some drug charities who work with addicts.

'Bribery' Continue reading the main story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lo ... ontinues_1) Related stories

Should sterilisation be encouraged? Your views (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/haveyoursay/ ... ged_t.html)

Anger over 'sterilisation offer' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10143746)

Should drug addicts be paid to get sterilised? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8500285.stm)

Project Prevention founder Barbara Harris admitted her methods amounted to "bribery" but said it was the only way to stop babies being physically and mentally damaged by drugs during pregnancy.

Drug treatment charity Addaction estimates one million children in the UK are living with parents who abuse drugs.

Pregnant addicts can pass on dependency to the unborn child, leading to organ and brain damage.

Mrs Harris set up her charity in North Carolina after adopting the children of a crack addict.

Damage to children Speaking to the BBC's Inside Out programme, she said: "The birth mother of my children obviously dabbled in all drugs and alcohol - she literally had a baby every year for eight years.

"I get very angry about the damage that drugs do to these children."

After paying 3,500 addicts across the United States not to have children, she is now visiting parts of the UK blighted by drugs to encourage users to undergo "long-term birth control" for cash.

John, a 38-year-old addict from Leicester, is the first person in the UK to accept money to have a vasectomy, after being involved in drugs since he was 12.

Continue reading the main story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lo ... ontinues_2) “Start Quote

It might work in America but Great Britain is a very different country”

End Quote Maria Cripps Dovetail Centre

He said: "It was something that I'd been thinking about for a long time.

"I won't be able to support a kid; I can just about manage to support myself."

Simon Antrobus, chief executive of Addaction, said while no-one wanted to see children brought up in a drug-using environment, there was no place for Project Prevention in the UK.

"It exploits very vulnerable people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol at probably the lowest point in their lives," he said.

The Reverend Robert Black, of Victory Outreach, which works with former addicts in east London, said he thought Project Prevention's aims were "very devious".

Reversible contraception Maria Cripps, project manager at the Hackney Dovetail Centre which works with drug users and their carers, said: "I think Barbara uses some very extreme examples to get her point across. It might work in America but Great Britain is a very different country."

But Reverend Martin Blakebrough, director of Camden's Kaleidoscope Project in north London, said sterilisation was "worth considering" if it was right for the individual.

A spokesperson at the British Medical Association said: "The BMA's ethics committee does not have a view on the charity Project Prevention.

"As with all requests for treatment, doctors need to be confident that the individual has the capacity to make the specific decision at the time the decision is required.

"The BMA's ethics committee also believes that doctors should inform patients of the benefits of reversible contraception so that the patients have more reproductive choices in the future."

Sterilising The Addicts is on Inside Out London, East Midlands, West, and Wales on 18 October on BBC One at 1930 BST and in Scotland as BBC Scotland Investigates: Addicts - No Children Allowed. Those living in the rest of the UK can watch via the BBC iPlayer following transmission.

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[tugon (imported)]

Well 200 pounds to be sterilized may seem like a deal but I bet many who want to be eunuchs would give up the 200 pounds and claim to be drug addicts if they offered castrations instead of vasectomies.

[Glasgow_kiss (imported)]

There's been much talk about this over the last few days in the UK and somehow I don't think it's legal what there doing. Apprently it's been getting done in America for years.

A number of the right wing political supporters like the sound of it but they were the cause of this social decline that started in the 80's in the first place!

Although if they offered castration I would pose as a drug user to get it....

[chemcast scot (imported)]

Might be a good idea to make sure that drug users dont have any children for it is cruel for childrin to be exposed to any sort of drug addition but is it realy a good idea to give them cash what will they do with it go and buy more drugs it might have been better to give them shopping vouchers that way they could not buy anymoe drugs if they had been offering castration i would have said i was a drug user just to get castrated

[Origen (imported)]

But - in this woman's view, it wouldnt matter too much if they took a few more drugs (and £200 wouldn't go very far) - her aim is to stop them having children, isn't it?

Presumably, for men, she is ofering vasectomy? So that doesn't help us very much!

[Glasgow_kiss (imported)]

But - in this woman's view, it wouldnt matter too much if they took a few more drugs (and £200 wouldn't go very far) - her aim is to stop them having children, isn't it?

Presumably, for men, she is ofering vasectomy? So that doesn't help us very much!

Yeah that's her view but in my opinion it's preying on vulnerable people who would probably sell there gran for the next fix and they wouldn't be getting such a procedure for the right reasons.

[stevesd (imported)]

Are they talking Vasectomy's or Castration for guys? Hell I go the VAS Snip --easy, two metal clips put on each end of the vas and a little peace removed..feel more confident now that I won't get a girl pregnet, but until I can get castrated, the VAS was the best thing. Vasectomy easy but I would opt for castration if I could get one instead! I recommend anyone getting one!

Stevesd