Christine

I couldn't agree with you more. It seems it's all around us! Is there
anything we can do to educate the people in this project? Adeline


At 10:33 AM 7/12/99 -0500, you wrote:
>I'm not sure if this is the appropriate way to address
>something that was published in the last OHPE, however,
>here goes.
>
>
>In section B, there is an announcement for the
>International Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Day. I checked
>out one of the websites listed, www.acbr.com/fas/
>and found this on the homepage:
>
>"Many of society's most persistent problems stem from a
>single source: pregnant women drinking alcohol causing neurological
>damage to the child. The injured child is unable to meet the demands
>of parents, family, peers, school, career, adherence to rules, and
>enters a lifetime cycle of failures. Often the neurological damage
>goes undiagnosed, but not unpunished."
>
>
>Really?
>While I certainly don't deny that drinking during pregnancy
>has very harmful effects on the fetus, and I'm sure that
>the leaders of TRIUMF project have the best intentions, what about
>addressing why women drink and all the other factors
>that affect children, including access to health care and education,
>exposure to environmental toxins, freedom from molestation and
>physical violence against themselves and their mothers?  What about
>the effects of alcohol and drug use by the father on the fetus?
>
>Why are we engaging in blaming the mother for all of
>society's problems?  This is ludicrous and also dangerous.
>I thought we had moved beyond this kind of witch hunt.
>
>I am interested in the opinions of others on this issue.
>
>Christine Marton
>Doctoral student
>Faculty of Information Studies, U of T
>[log in to unmask]
>
_________________________________________________________

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be
counted counts" Albert Einstein