The environment is the “natural world in which living things dwell and grow.” Black’s Law Dictionary 651 (10th ed. 2014). It is a mother’s duty to provide a safe “environment” in which a child is to grow and properly develop. Some mothers involve themselves in illicit drug use while pregnant. There is a split between states on how to proceed and deal illicit drug use of mothers while pregnant. Can we legally prosecute? If so, under which statutes are we able or unable to? What is the intent of mother and does that play a role? A major question we must ask ourselves as an attorneys is: is it ethical to prosecute a pregnant mother for the actions of her crimes affecting her fetus? Different state courts have gray areas in their statutes
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Many factors will play the role in the development of a fetus including genetic makeup and mother’s use of drugs. Janet. W Severson Prenatal Drug exposure: The impetus for Overreaction by the Legal Community or a Serious Problem Needing a Serious Solution?, 28 No. 4 42 (Winter 2008). A child is exposed to what the mother consumes via the placenta. The placenta is attached to the walls of the uterus on the mother to the middle of the stomach of the fetus. Blood and nutrients flow between the mother and child through the umbilical cord at the capillary level. Due to the molecular weight, cocaine and methamphetamines are able to “pass freely” or circulate from the mother to the child via the placenta and umbilical cord and back into the mother. Johnson v. State, 602, So.2d 1288 1291 (Fla. 1992). Stevenson states that “in some cases the placenta seems to have the ability to partially block fetal exposure” to cocaine, but not so with methamphetamines. With the use of these drugs by a mother with child, the risk of preterm birth, physical defects, neurological alterations, post partum drug dependency, and infant are increased exponentially. See supra note …show more content…
Since the act of transferring blood and nutrients to the fetus is an involuntary act, how can a mother have control over the transfer of drugs into the infant? The pregnant mother consumes the methamphetamines or cocaine aware that it is illegal. Therefore possibly affecting the fetus inside of her. The answer is that she cannot control the act of blood transferring between the two parties and is against her will, according to State v. Armstad, 991 So.2d. The mother cannot be found, under La. R.S. 14:8; “General Comment” and “Theory of the ‘Criminal Act’,” to be guilty of neglect due to it requiring an act that is voluntary. Dr. Stephen Kandall, a neonatologist and expert testimony in the instance of Johnson v. State, it stated that during contractions prior to birth, blood flow between the fetus and mother via the umbilical cord is restricted. The time after the child is delivered, 30 to 60 seconds before cutting the clamped umbilical cord, has minute blood flow and particle passage. (Cocaine is also a vasoconstrictor.) Therefore limiting the involuntary act of blood and particle flow between mother and fetus even more. See supra note 1293. The only voluntary act involved is the act of using the drug (cocaine or methamphetamines), thus the “criminal act of delivery” is uncontrollable and involuntary, according to the prosecutor’s theory in People v. Hardy, 469 N.W.2d 50 54 (Mich.App. 1991) (Hardy is
Many factors will play the role in the development of a fetus including genetic makeup and mother’s use of drugs. Janet. W Severson Prenatal Drug exposure: The impetus for Overreaction by the Legal Community or a Serious Problem Needing a Serious Solution?, 28 No. 4 42 (Winter 2008). A child is exposed to what the mother consumes via the placenta. The placenta is attached to the walls of the uterus on the mother to the middle of the stomach of the fetus. Blood and nutrients flow between the mother and child through the umbilical cord at the capillary level. Due to the molecular weight, cocaine and methamphetamines are able to “pass freely” or circulate from the mother to the child via the placenta and umbilical cord and back into the mother. Johnson v. State, 602, So.2d 1288 1291 (Fla. 1992). Stevenson states that “in some cases the placenta seems to have the ability to partially block fetal exposure” to cocaine, but not so with methamphetamines. With the use of these drugs by a mother with child, the risk of preterm birth, physical defects, neurological alterations, post partum drug dependency, and infant are increased exponentially. See supra note …show more content…
Since the act of transferring blood and nutrients to the fetus is an involuntary act, how can a mother have control over the transfer of drugs into the infant? The pregnant mother consumes the methamphetamines or cocaine aware that it is illegal. Therefore possibly affecting the fetus inside of her. The answer is that she cannot control the act of blood transferring between the two parties and is against her will, according to State v. Armstad, 991 So.2d. The mother cannot be found, under La. R.S. 14:8; “General Comment” and “Theory of the ‘Criminal Act’,” to be guilty of neglect due to it requiring an act that is voluntary. Dr. Stephen Kandall, a neonatologist and expert testimony in the instance of Johnson v. State, it stated that during contractions prior to birth, blood flow between the fetus and mother via the umbilical cord is restricted. The time after the child is delivered, 30 to 60 seconds before cutting the clamped umbilical cord, has minute blood flow and particle passage. (Cocaine is also a vasoconstrictor.) Therefore limiting the involuntary act of blood and particle flow between mother and fetus even more. See supra note 1293. The only voluntary act involved is the act of using the drug (cocaine or methamphetamines), thus the “criminal act of delivery” is uncontrollable and involuntary, according to the prosecutor’s theory in People v. Hardy, 469 N.W.2d 50 54 (Mich.App. 1991) (Hardy is