Introduction
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, or FASDs, have severe implications for the well-being and health of individuals in all stages of their lives. Symptoms often include low body weight, hyperactivity, poor memory, and coordination, learning disabilities, attention difficulties, speech delays, inadequate reasoning and judgment abilities, issues with sleep, and problems with the heart, kidneys, and bones. These factors can severely impact individuals and the quality of their lives.
Discussion
Alcohol misuse has numerous negative implications not only for the child during pregnancy but later in life as well. They may be born or raised in negligent, abusive, or otherwise inadequate environments. The dangers of FASDs and alcohol abuse cannot be understated and is a factor of large socioeconomic and health issues on a global scale.
However, many of the current laws that address the issue of alcohol consumption among pregnant women to prevent FASDs are largely oppressive and ineffective in addressing FASDs. The relation between alcohol consumption and FASDs is not a guaranteed result and many incidents in which women have had legal repercussions for drinking while pregnant had no incidents of FASDs. In essence, such laws are enacted and utilized primarily with the intent to arrest, civilly commit, force interventions on, and subject to the loss of custody in all instances of alcohol consumption. Similarly, the laws fail to be objective and often disproportionately affect black women (Seiler, 2016).
Conclusion
To conclude, current applications of these laws do not consider the complexities of the relationship between FASDs and alcohol consumption, which results in the needless monitoring of women’s behavior. Any further addressing of the issue of FASDs must consider laws that assess incidents separately and consider the rights and well-being of women.
Work Cited
Seiler, Naomi, K. “Alcohol and Pregnancy: CDC’s Health Advice and the Legal Rights of Pregnant Women.” Public Health Reports, 1 Jul. 2016, pp. 623–627.