A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization
Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
| Home | Search | About ASH | Why Join | Comment | Email page |
|
Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
|
ASH PR: Smoker Can’t Adopt Child, Even Though He Smokes Outdoors; Ruling is Similar to Those for Custody and Foster Children [11/28/06-6]
A heartbroken couple has been told they cannot adopt a child because he smokes, even though he says he never smokes indoors. Indeed, the prohibition stands until he quits smoking for six months and provides medical documentation that he is no longer a smoker.
"This is just the latest step in a growing movement to protect the most vulnerable and most defenseless victims of tobacco smoke pollution,"
says public interest lawyer John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
As a matter of fact, says Banzhaf, even years ago, when the dangers of smoking around children was far less well appreciated, ten percent of social workers specializing in adoption turned down potential parents because one or both smoked.
For similar reasons judges in more than half our states -- and a few in foreign countries -- have recognized that smoking around a child can be not only dangerous but deadly, and have ruled that smoking around a child can be grounds for losing custody.
Similarly, almost a dozen states have ruled -- or are in the process of issuing rules -- prohibiting smoking in the presence of foster children, and two states have banned smoking in cars when any children are present.
"Smoking kills thousands of children every year (largely from respiratory infections), is a major factor in SIDS, and causes millions of medical problems in kids each year ranging from asthmatic attacks (and new cases of asthma) to ear aches, so protecting young children from tobacco smoke is long overdue," says Banzhaf.
"A growing number of people consider smoking around children to be the most prevalent and dangerous form of child abuse, so it is not surprising that a adoption agency would want to protect their wards, to whom they owe both a legal (fiduciary) duty and a moral obligation."
In this situation the husband claims that he does not smoke in the home, but there may be no way to for the authorities to independently confirm that, and to make sure that there are never any exceptions -- e.g., when the weather is very cold, when the husband is too ill to go outdoors, after he suffers a leg or back injury, etc.
So it may not be unreasonable for a social welfare agency to adopt a rule prohibiting adoptions where one or both prospective parents smokes, and therefore is probably addicted to nicotine. For similar reasons, a welfare agency might not wish to take a chance and place a child with someone with a history of addiction to alcohol or illegal drugs, even if he promises not to use alcohol or other drugs in the home.
Otherwise the health and perhaps even the life of a child could be put at risk, especially since there is no way an agency could possibly monitor for -- much less prevent -- any smoking in the home by a new parent who is already a smoker. The same problem would also obviously apply to anyone with a history of alcohol or drug addiction.
Moreover, if a violation occurred once the child had been placed for adoption, or if the husband simply decided to change his practice and to begin smoking within the family home once the adoption became final, it might be very difficult as well as expensive for the social welfare agency to then remove the child from the home.
"If a natural father (or mother) of a child can lose custody by endangering the welfare of his own child by smoking in his presence, it should not be surprising that smoking can also be a barrier to an adoption; i.e., where there is no biological connection between the adults and the child, and no bond has yet been created," says Banzhaf.
If, as the father claims, he is "desperate" to adopt a child, he should be willing to quit smoking, argues Banzhaf. Many people spend thousands of dollars to adopt, and may be required to make other significant changes in their lifestyles, notes Banzhaf.
If the father continues to smoke, the child is also substantially more likely to become a smoker himself even if the father never smokes in his presence, and the child is also substantially more likely to lose his father prematurely.
| Home Web Page | Search This Site | Learn About ASH | Why Join ASH | Comment on This | Email This Page |