Do you think a woman has a right to...

I think they have the right, but I would hope they have the common sence not to.

Another approach to this topic. My mother smoked while pregnant, both of my aunts smoked while pregnant. also my cousins wife smoked while pregant. between the 4 people, 10 children were born, none of us had adverse effects. smoking increases the chance of a birth defect, it does not guarentee one, the 10 of us are as healthy as the one child born to a non smoking cousin. If you create a law saying a women cannott smoke while pregnant, laws should also be created stating women cannot ride in cars for fear of an accident that could harm a child, it does after increase the chances of an injury to a child. Yes I know the car thing is far fetched, butwhat does a woman really do during preganancy, that cant potentially increase the risk of injury or birth defect to a child? thats all smoking or drinking does is increase the chance, it doesnt mean it will happen. I know many of you will disagree with my 2 posts here, but I try to look at every issue from every side I possibly can and I cant see a law about this being proper

Maybe it sounds very unfair. But I think being a pregnant mom should be responsible for her baby. Smoking and drinking are too harmful for the children. They should try to get rid of it when they're pregnant. If you can't quit it for some time, please don't get pregnant. When I was pregnant, I tried to be careful for my diet. As my health related to my baby. I wanted to have a healthy baby. I even didn't drink cola when I was pregnant, although it was my favorite drink. Everyday I would make sure I would drink a cup of milk, an egg and a kind of fruit.

She has the right to smoke if she is not pregnant. The baby has the right to survive healthily and not be born mentally retarded due to selfishness. No mother of an unborn baby is in the right mind if she smokes knowing full well the danger. Yes there must be law. We have anti smoking laws all over..no smoking in a queue..no smoking in an air-con room, no smoking in the bus shelters, no smoking in hospitals etc... so a law must be in placed to protect the child from the mother who abuses this right.

Smoking and drinking is not a good think in whatever condition. And during pregnancy, it is even worse. it could be really detrimental to the unborn child. It could make the child to be born with alot of medical complications which may be really bad and this could be a form of child abuse i think.

This is a great discussion. Thank you for posting it. Firstly I would like to say I DO NOT think the government has any right whatsoever to attempt to govern the human body. second lets say tommorrow that law is passed. lets see them try and enforce it. Not going to happen. say you find a police officer who will enforce such a law. Whats going to happen, surely the woman wouldn't go to jail for such a thing, a fine would be issued. taking money away from the mother which is likely needed for the child. But we are allowed to contest fines we receive, so now the police officer must prove the woman was smoking. how would he do that? The woman must prove she wasn't how would she do that? she would either have someone else say she wouldn't and beat the fine, or she wouldn't be able to prove it. therefor proof couldn't be provided either way, and the fine would be dropped. I dont see such a law ever happening, and if it does, I rue the day

I think it depends on ones personality and ones likes dislikes but to my idea there is no right to spoil the babys health though it is her own,and for these type of people the goverment should stop them from being pregnant,what my opinion is.

Every person has a right to do whatever he wants the country has a right to have certain laws that can stop a person if he is hurting/abusing the other. But the country does not have any law that forbids women to do certain things while pregnant the country has no law that forbids parents to treat their children like garbage and so on. Now you referred to a very important question. where is the line? when does a country turn to a country that controls her people in any way they decide. I really do not know how to answer. To my opinion women should not drink or smoke while she is pregnant. It could kill her baby, or cause a damage. But another person will tell you that every person has to act how he wants with his life and body. I know that usually nature acts here, if the body feels that somthing is wrong, he will drop the baby or will not let the women get pregnant.

This is a tough one. Me being a mother now couldn't imagine doing anything while pregnant that could potentially harm the baby. This may be one of those subjects that I sound judgmental on but I think it is selfish of the mother to not stop drinking and smoking for 9 months. Now as far as how far doctors can go that's hard to say. The only reason I say this is because I have known women who have smoked the whole time they were pregnant and had perfectly healthy babies. I still don't think it's right that they smoked but at least the babies are ok. So it's hard to set certains laws against it since there have been babies that have been just fine.

Well, they are trying to do the best they can but those pregnants people won't listen. you are right, all they said is her own body!!! You see? everytimes she goes to see the doctor, they always tell her not to smoke and drink. she never listen. the goverment try to increase the price of smoke but I am still wondering why they rather skip lunch to buy their smoke.... That's a big problem in the US now

No, i think she shouldn't have this "right"! There's a new life in her, so she can't think only about herself. Being pregnant is a responsability towards the growing new life, and even if the law can't ban some (in my opinion) bad behaviours, the mother should understand whats' right and what's wrong for her and for her baby. She obviously have the possibility to drink and smoke if she want to, but i think it's an irresponsible behaviour.