London/Washington, April 11 (Inditop.com) Drug addicts in the US are being paid to get sterilised so that thousands of children are “saved from growing up within a damaged environment,” a media report has said.
American charity organisation, Project Prevention, in North Carolina state, has stopped more than 3,500 drink and drug addicts from having children by paying them up to £200 to seek permanent forms of contraception such as an IUD implant or full sterilisation, the Independent reported Saturday.
Encouraging drug addicts to seek sterilisation saves thousands of children from growing up within a damaged environment, Barbara Harris, founder of the organisation, was quoted as saying.
Harris, meanwhile, has adopted five children born to crack-addicted mothers.
The organisation now is reportedly planning to set up a base across the Atlantic in Britain, a move that has been vehemently criticised by the UK’s drug addiction experts.
Andrew Horne, director of Addaction, one of Britain’s largest addiction charities, condemned the American charity’s approach.
“There is no place for Project Prevention in the UK because their practices are morally reprehensible and irrelevant,” Horne said.
“Our first-hand experience shows that people can make positive changes with the right support – both for themselves and for their children. In fact, many of our clients stopped using drugs because they became a parent,” he was quoted as saying.
Harris, who is at present in Britain, defended her work and hoped her project will be as successful in Britain as it has been in the US.
“We hope the scheme will grow as much here as it did in the US, and that people will support us financially. We need cash to pay the addicts,” she said.
