Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders in Adults: Ethical and Legal Perspectives: An overview on FASD for professionals (International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine Book 63)

This book discusses and provides insight on the legal and ethical dilemmas of managing those with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). This book provides a clear perspective for those clinicians and legal professionals who are working with those with this disorder, and correspondingly increases their understanding when arranging effective supports for this population. Historically, the primary focus on FASD has been on children. However, this is a lifelong disorder, and the implications of this disorder become even more prominent and complex in adulthood. Those with this condition can struggle with impulsiveness, and a host of cognitive difficulties. This correspondingly impacts their independence and employability, and produces an elevated risk for homelessness and other residential issues, involvement in substance use, being exploited, development of behavioural issues, and subsequent legal difficulties. Their cognitive difficulties result in challenges for legal systems around the world to understand their issues, and to design appropriate remedial strategies, recommendations for treatments and supports, and even for understanding the failure of many of these individuals to be able to change their behaviours effectively. This produces various legal and ethical dilemmas, which are discussed in detail in this volume by 28 authors from Europe, New Zealand, and North America. These include discussions regarding the rights of the unborn child, the alcohol industry's duty to warn, whether small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy can be condoned, and even the current use of involuntary hospitalization for addicted mothers. Other chapters discuss the need for training on FASD for front line officers, use of lies during interrogation of those with FASD, medical and legal interventions for offenders with FASD, access to diagnostic services and follow-up supports, and whether FASD can be considered a mitigating factor for sentencing. Furthermore, caregivers also provide their stories regarding the daily dilemmas that are faced in raising those with FASD Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: Ethical, Legal and Moral Implications Associated with the Rights of the Unborn Child....Pages 3-22 Why People with FASD Fall for Manipulative Ploys: Ethical Limits of Interrogators’ Use of Lies....Pages 23-38 Neurodevelopmental Disorder Associated with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: Consumer Protection and the Industry’s Duty to Warn....Pages 39-47 Experience in Involuntary Hospitalisation of Drug and Alcohol Addicted Mothers During Their Pregnancies at Borgestadklinikken, Norway....Pages 49-64 Is It Ethical to Condone Low Levels of Drinking in Pregnancy?....Pages 65-83 Ethical Challenges When Screening for and Diagnosing FASD in Adults....Pages 85-97 Front Matter....Pages 99-99 Neurocognitive Difficulties Underlying High Risk and Criminal Behaviour in FASD: Clinical Implications....Pages 101-120 Medico-Legal Interventions in Management of Offenders with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)....Pages 121-138 Oral Language and Communication Factors to Consider When Supporting People with FASD Involved with the Legal System....Pages 139-147 Front Matter....Pages 149-149 Evolution of the Diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder from DSM-IV-TR to DSM-5: The Justice System in the United States—Time for a Paradigm Shift!....Pages 151-167 Smart Justice and FASD in Alaska: From Prevention to Sentence Mitigation....Pages 169-189 FASD & Justice: The Ethical Case for Effective Training and Knowledge Mobilization Practices for Frontline Justice Professionals in Canada....Pages 191-206 Front Matter....Pages 207-207 Social Care and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders in the UK....Pages 209-221 FASD in a Canadian Aboriginal Community Context—An Exploration of Some Ethical Issues Involving the Access to FASD Service Delivery....Pages 223-239 FASD and the Concept of “Intellectual Disability Equivalence”....Pages 241-266 Front Matter....Pages 267-267 Minimizing Secondary Disabilities....Pages 269-283 The Challenges of Raising an FASD Child in Canada....Pages 285-292 I Did not Take on This Job of Parent in Order to Raise Criminals....Pages 293-300