Prenatal Substance Abuse and Judicial Intervention in Pregnancy: Winnipeg Child and Family Services (Northwest Area) v. G.(D.F.)

RICHARD D. BELL

ABSTRACT

The recent decision in Winnipeg Child and Family Services v. G.(D.F.) raises the difficult issue of the appropriate legal response to substance abuse during pregnancy. The Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench held that a pregnant, glue-sniffing woman could be ordered into drug treatment and supervisory custody until her child was born. While this order may seem unobjectionable at first sight, the author argues that the decision may have serious legal and social consequences. Prenatal judicial intervention to control substance abuse may detrimentally alter the existing legal balance between fetal and maternal rights, unduly broaden the common law doctrine of parens patriae, violate the Charter, and have the unintended effect of encouraging pregnant women to avoid the health care system or to terminate their pregnancies. While the Court's order may have been motivated by an appropriate concern for the fetus that would be carried to term, the author argues that such judicial intervention presents complex moral questions which are best left to Parliament to resolve.

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Citation: (1997) 55(2) U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 321.
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