Before making a decision in a nice sterile hypothetical environment, I think we should take a look at the hell that drug addicted women are forcing on their children. Imagine an infant's first out of womb sensation being exteme pain caused by physical withdrawal from Heroin so intense that morphine drip must be started to keep the baby alive. Imagine a brain damaged crack baby, innocently sentenced to live a life of severe mental retardation and perhaps early death (the death rate for babies of adicts is much higher than normal). Add to the fact that some addicts (many of whom are prostitutes), have 2,3,4 or even more children, and expose them not only to addicitons and deformities, but to HIV. We consider carefully the rights of the mothers, but what of protecting infants?

Imagine the severly underweight and malnourished, malformed and pitiful mewling creatures forced into lives of addiciton before they are even born. Violence stalks them, along with poverty and malnourishment. It is not so clear a picture as some would have us believe.

The world is comprised of two groups of people on any issue, those who are out there on the battle front doing whatever they can to help the innocent and the hurting, and those who sit far back from the front doing nothing but criticising those who are in the battle's fray.

Before we criticise someone who is doing all she can to help, we should ask of ourselves, "What are we doing to help?" If we cannot bring ourselves to get off our couches and help, perhaps the least we could do would be to hold our peace and let those who fight for the innocent victims do their work.