Top Medical Doctors, Scientists & Specialists Urge Major Media Outlets Not to Create 'Meth Baby' Myth
Posted on: Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 09:00 CDT
NEW YORK, July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 90 leading medical doctors, scientists, psychological researchers and treatment specialists have released a public letter calling on the media to stop the use of such terms as "ice babies" and "meth babies." This prestigious group agrees that these terms lack scientific validity and should not be used.
Motivated by news coverage using alarmist and unjustified labels and new legislative proposals suggesting punishment rather than treatment, these leading doctors, researchers, and specialists have collaborated to write a consensus statement requesting that media coverage of the subject, and legislative proposals addressing it, be "based on science not presumption or prejudice."
The letter says that, "the use of stigmatizing terms, such as 'ice babies' and 'meth babies,' lacks scientific validity ... and that the use of such labels harms the children to which they are applied ... [by] lowering expectations for their academic and life achievements, discouraging investigation into other causes for physical and social problems the child might encounter, and leading to policies that ignore factors, including poverty, that may play a much more significant role in their lives." It also says that, "the suggestion that treatment will not work for people dependent upon methamphetamines, particularly mothers, also lacks any scientific basis."
The letter calls on the media to stop the use of these pejorative terms, and urges the media to stop its practice of relying on people who lack scientific experience or expertise for their information about the effects of prenatal exposure to methamphetamine and about the efficacy of treatment.
The full text of this letter with a complete list of signatories is available at: http://www.jointogether.org/y/0,2521,577769,00.html.
Those interested in Methamphetamine issues can also learn more at the First National Methamphetamine, HIV and Hepatitis Conference, Science and Response in 2005, August 19th and 20th, 2005 in Salt Lake City, http://www.harmredux.org/conference2005.html
National Advocates for Pregnant Women
CONTACT: Kerry Townsend Jacob, Press Representative of NationalAdvocates for Pregnant Women, +1-917-806-2550
Web site: http://www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org/http://www.harmredux.org/conference2005.htmlhttp://www.jointogether.org/y/0,2521,577769,00.html
Source: PRNewswire
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