The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

(£200) $316.54. That is what some people are being paid in the U.K.to not have children.

Barbara Harris with her husband and four adopted children whose mother was a drug addict.

From dailymail.co.uk

“An American charity has paid a British drug addict and self-confessed burglar £200 to be sterilised.
Project Prevention triggered an ethical storm yesterday after handing the 38-year-old man – identified only as ‘John’ from Leicester – four £50 notes after he agreed to have a vasectomy.
The charity admits offering ‘bribes’ arguing that it helps prevent babies inheriting their parents’ addictions.”

[...]

“The charity was set up by Barbara Harris, who adopted four children born of a crack addict mother.
It has paid out thousands of dollars to hundreds of U.S. women – and a few men – who agreed to be sterilised or commit to long-term contraception.
Critics have called her crusade unethical, comparing her to Hitler, but earlier this year the 57-year-old arrived in Britain to spread her message.”

[...]

Her crusade began when she was working as a waitress in California in 1989 with six sons – two with her husband, Smitty, a surgical technician, and four from their previous relationships.

Craving a daughter they adopted Destiny. The baby girl was born testing positive for addiction to crack and heroin and her birth mother had already given birth to four other children subsequently taken into care.
Four months later she was asked to adopt another baby from the same mother, then two more of her babies – which prompted the launch of Project Prevention.

The charity now receives more than half a million dollars a year in donations. Her family run the organisation from their home in North Carolina and travel the States in a 30ft motor home adorned with images of critically ill babies.
Each time an addict is sterilised, a doctor sends Harris confirmation before the cash is handed over.
If any of the women manage to get off drugs and then regret having been sterilised, Mrs Harris promises to pay for it to be reversed. Addicts get a $50 fee is they refer another addict to the charity.

So what do you think?

One thing I thought of is how non-drug addicts, responsible couples will oftentimes elect to self-sterilize on their own when they feel that they are not capable of handling children in their lives. Then you also have couples who use other methods of birth control prevention. What really is the difference here? I have more thoughts on this, but I would like to hear some of you chime in on this one.