Komen oude tijden terug?
Wij, en velen mét ons, denken dat de strijd tegen roken een uitwas is
van de gezondheidsindustrie. En dat nog meerdere uitwassen zullen volgen op het
gebied van alcohol en vet eten.
Maar het kan zelfs nog erger. En het gebeurt nu al.
Op de BBC site staat vandaag het verhaal van een vrouw die verslaafden en
alcoholisten betaalt voor… sterilisatie.
“The project targets poor women – and you tell me what sort of choice it
is when it’s made by someone living in poverty and desperate for money
.”
Een bericht uit de VS, thuisbasis van het anti-roken…
Let’s kill them for their own sake
To its critics, Project Prevention or Crack – an American organisation which pays drug addicts and alcoholics to be sterilised – is a terrifying throwback to the neutering of “defectives” during the 20th Century.
But the woman who runs this not-for-profit programme believes she is offering a service to everyone: the drug addict, the taxpayer, the child who has not yet been born, and if she has her way – will never be born.
Some 1,050 addicts – mainly women – have undergone sterilisation as part of her programme over the past five years.
It may not seem a considerable number, but, Ms Harris stresses, the number of clients has more than doubled over the past 12 months compared with the year before.
“Basically, despite the initial controversy over the programme, people are starting to accept that it’s a good idea. Probation officers, social workers and those who work on drug treatment programmes are increasingly referring their clients to us,” she says.
As it has expanded, the tone of the group has also shifted. Ms Harris, who was quoted in one of her first interviews as saying “We don’t allow dogs to breed. We spay them. We neuter them. We try to keep them from having unwanted puppies, and yet these women are literally having litters of children,” has since toned down her language.
Her project was initially referred to simply as Crack (Children Requiring A Caring Community). Now it frequently uses the warmer term Project Prevention.
But the essence of her project remains the same. It offers drug addicts and alcoholics a sum of $200 for opting for a long-term form of birth control, such as sterilisation or a contraceptive implant.
