A woman under the influence of drugs CANNOT GRANT CONSENT
Today is Mother's Day. A day celebrated by millions. But also a day when many mothers might grieve or feel sad. I am speaking of women who lost their children to coerced adoptions, an all too common phenomenon in this country.
No woman should be given adoption papers to sign when she is still in the hospital. No adoption should take place anywhere other than a courtroom. And no one should be asked to consent to an adoption when under the influence of pain killers or any other drug.
And that includes women who have previously indicated that they would agree to an adoption. The birth of the baby often changes everything--a fact that the adoption industry knows all too well. Lawyers and adoption agencies have seen countless adoptions fall through after the baby is born--and so they often come prepared. They are willing to allow a coerced adoption to substitute for a voluntary one. This coercion comes in many different forms. Drugged mothers are one of those forms. Our society tolerates it because we have this attitude that the woman had already agreed to the adoption and the prospective adoptive parents were already the rightful parents.
A pregnant woman is not a birth mother. She is an expectant mother. And then she is the new mom. Anything that comes later, comes later. And if it comes, it should not involve drugs, bullying or any other form of coercion. Sadly...it often does. Very often.
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