by Lucius Trae

Created on: May 24, 2010   Last Updated: May 25, 2010

Drinking during pregnancy is not appropriate. Fetal alcohol syndrome can occur with any level of drinking. Furthermore, there is a long list of health issues that drinking makes more probably. Any amount of alcohol may cause a child to be mentally handicapped, disabled, develop a mood disorder and/or fall victim to a wide variety of other problems.

There is significant debate over abortion, but a child that is birthed successfully is widely recognized as deserving moral consideration. In my view, drinking during pregnancy is the same as giving the child alcohol. That's illegal, by the way, and it's exactly what's happening.

The baby gets exposed to unhealthy amounts of alcohol - especially given its weight. It's just not responsible to drink during pregnancy. Frankly, most conditions are difficult to link to alcohol.

It's merely a suspected cause. With fetal alcohol syndrome, it's my view that at the bare minimum, the child should be taken from the mother. They showed improper consideration for the life of their child already.

Sure, plenty of mothers slipped up and raised their children well. But it's like driving while drunk. Maybe you get lucky and don't hurt someone, but it's unacceptable behavior to play Russian roulette with the health of a child.

It's going to be brought up that all kinds of things can have an influence on the child. Should a mother be expected to eat the perfect diet? Quite frankly, she should be trying her best to do it - and the men should be on board out of support.

Not only is it good for the babies health, but you need to ensure you're well energized to raise the child. Raising a kid should be a commitment to providing for their happiness and safety.

This means making sure they are subject to as few health risks as are practical. The "line" may be drawn differently by different people, but drinking isn't acceptable. It's not even nutritionally beneficial to consume.

There isn't enough data to support that drinking is safe during pregnancy. The science goes the other way - which is precisely why the doctors recommend you stop drinking. People want to make money, and studies on the benefits or safety of alcohol, wine, coffee, etc, are constantly promoted.

Some of them have benefits, but a lot of alcohol related studies are misleading. They use "alcoholic beverages" and state how they help your health. A lot of the time it's the non-alcoholic ingredients that benefit us.

I have to suspect that if a women takes an unnecessary risk by drinking during pregnancy, she has self-discipline issues and/or a problem with alcohol. Furthermore, I don't know where their significant other is, but they shouldn't be accepting that.

I know women are allowed to make choices for themselves, and I support that. However, I wouldn't stand by while a women or a man tried to stab themselves.

It's a kind of unrelated example, but the same thing applies during pregnancy. If I see women drinking in public while pregnant, I assume it's not alcoholic or they're planning to abort.

Quite frankly, I would strongly consider leaving a spouse if I was in a situation where they refused to stop drinking during a pregnancy. It's just not acceptable.

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