geez not this again..

those parents sucked, but there is no reason to take the child away from people who are in recovery. there is no making it "through" recovery...you are in recovery forever.

and this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methadone_maintenance is something many people, including parents, need to do for their entire lives. some people have pain issues and some people have addiction issues. but lots of people on methadone maintenance also have children, and do a perfectly fine job raising their children.

you guys can be so bossy. once again you can't take people's kids away because of their past, nor can you decide who should or shouldn't have kids. lots of stupid idiots have kids every second of every day. 14 year olds have kids. crack addicts have kids. psycho child molesters have kids. nazi skinheads have kids. etc.

We should stop putting assholes like this in jail. It doesnt work. Five lashes with a whip would work wonders however. Anyone who would commit a crime like this against a child does not deserve our sypathy. These people are no better than rapeists or child molesters. Any crime against children should carry severe conseqenses.

if everyone would just stop fucking we wouldn't have these problems.

i think rapists and child molesters are worser.

And angels are totally betterer.

edited because i don't even feel like gettting into it today. it's a tragedy.

We agree on that.

That's a good question, and it involves much thornier issues. Nor am I an expert on those issues. In a very real sense, anyway, every case is unique. I'm just pretty leery of any kind of preemptive invasion by state authority in general, so I'd want to be careful about setting the bar for state action high enough while remaining consistent with protecting the welfare of the child.

- you most certainly can take away people's kids if (like this couple in question) they have heroin and cocaine in their possession (not to mention are feeding a heroin substitue to their toddler)


And, uh, just because you've taken a trip to the methadone clinic and have some in your house does not automatically mean that you're in "recovery".
Doesn't work like that. Sorry

Not necessarily. It's possible to get it on prescription, in certain cases. But this is about methadone.

huh? no one knew they were feeding methadone to their baby until the baby died.

it's a pathetic, sick thing to do, but as i said you can't take away people's kids because of their past. if someone was a junkie for 3 years but then settled down and had a child after being sober for 3 years no one can rush in and take their baby away.

they weren't sober, they were on methadone (and apparently had they been tested someone would have spotted they were occasionally using heroin and cocaine too) methadone is still a class A drug in the UK, making it illegal if you're not being prescribed it, and a serious opiate. whilst methadone treatment is a step in the right direction if you're a heroin addict, it's a long way from sober.

well, like i said earlier people are prescribed methadone for various reasons, like pain. some people have to take it their entire lives are able to raise their kids.

these parents were pathetic in all ways possible. they basically made their own infant into an addict which is unbelievable. yes, the baby needed social services checking in on him/her oand making sure all was ok.

but to say that everyone who had a shady past or on prescription drugs should not have kids or have them taken away is something else completely. if there was a permit needed to have children only 20% of people would probably qualify anyway.

who said that?

Two heroin addict parents have killed thier child by giving him Class A drugs. Again.

I think this is a fair and natural question to be asked. It would be a pretty uncaring of society to not ask it.

I think this case shows that the agencies surrounding these people should be interacting more, observing more and paying a little bit more attention to high-risk parents. Government needs to be putting more money into supporting these people.

I think it's appalling that the father will not be prosecuted. It also makes me question where the parents families were and how did they not see that their grandchild was at risk?