To hate the idea of the new smoking bribe?

[CharleyFarleyy]

What do people who dont smoke anyway get? seems like they are going to miss out un-fairly.

Also if quitting for your and your babys health isnt incentive enough will shopping vouchers help anyway?

The incentive when it comes to smoking is always health. If people don't care about that and require payment to (not) do something on a mere short term basis, then that would be bribing.

Worra,

Do you dispute that they are selfish if they are smoking and causing harm to their baby and everyone around them?

People make a choice to start smoking. They aren't addicted then. And it's a bloody stupid thing to start doing if you know the risks.

What would be interesting would be whether a pregnant woman would pass the relevant tests if their partner or others around them smoke.
That would be a good test of the effects of second hand smoke.
Also what about vaping?

It's an addiction, I don't think some people are quite grasping that. This scheme is, as described back a couple of pages, aiming to give a hand to help women lift themselves out of addiction.

Call it what you like. You can hoick your bosom at the moral implications too, but if the evidence says it works, I'm all for it because the benefits for everyone would be worth it.

I don't understand the posts suggesting that them stopping smoking would only be temporary.
Most people I know who have given up smoking don't/haven't started again.
Some I know gave up 10+ years ago and never started again.
I think once the person has been without the addiction for a while there is no incentive to start again.
I suppose you could say that some may go by the wayside and start again but surely once the money had been saved there would be the financial incentive not to start again.
I'm not an authority but how long do cravings last for?

Clearly health reasons aren't enough to motivate people on their own, since the study seems to have controlled for this.

I think if it works it is cheap at the price - £400 to save the NHS a fortune on potential future treatments, and to prevent families going through the agony of early smoking-related disease and death seems worth it.

If people don't care about that and require payment to (not) do something on a mere short term basis, then that would be bribing.

And the bribe thus becomes their incentive.

No I don't dispute the selfishness because addiction by its very nature is a totally selfish thing.

People make a choice to start smoking for a whole vast array of reasons. Some will have started through stupidity, some through lack of education, some as children/teens who truly believed that they wouldn't be the ones to get addicted, some use nicotine as a crutch to deal with trauma etc...etc...etc

But once that choice was made (and for whatever reason), they are then stuck with needing a highly addictive substance, just to get through a day.

It's not as simple as being poor, uneducated, selfish cunts.

I think if it works it is cheap at the price

But does it work past the point they are given the vouchers?

I know of someone who allegedly quit smoking while she was pregnant who then started again before the child had her 1st birthday!
So if she had been part of the scheme it would have been a waste of their money!
It didn't help that she had 3 smokers living with her. It's all well and good them stopping while they're pregnant but I can see that it would be easy to lapse in that situation.

The aim is to help women stop smoking while pregnant because of the risk to unborn babies. Some will stay stopped, some will start again, but if they haven't smoked while pregnant the pilot will have worked.

We've had the same scheme here for years, I am torn, of it improves the chances of babies being born into poverty then it's money well spent, but it's too easy to cheat the testing imo

MoreThan the lady that was on Radio 4 this morning only stopped for the remaining 6 months of the pregnancy, so that might be why people are saying it.

I took it that the scheme was just there to encourage people to stop smoking during pregnancy, not to stop smoking all together. Obviously if they don't start again it's an added bonus but I don't think it would be seen as a 'waste of money' if they do. I do hate the idea of children sitting in smoke-filled rooms though :(

The aim is to help women stop smoking while pregnant because of the risk to unborn babies.

Is there a huge benefit if the mother is then smoking around her baby though?

I don't know soup dragon, but there's less chance of baby being born underweight, I don't know if the benefits of being in the womb of a non smoker are outweighed by being brought up by a smoker. I assume that a woman who has stopped smoking during pregnancy is less likely to smoke when her baby is born, but who knows?

It could potentially improve the health of the nation long term and save the NHS money. Why would you hate this idea?

Of course there isn't any point if the mother goes back to smoking after giving birth. There's the much bigger issue of smoking which needs tackling. I for one don't understand why it is still legal. I really don't enjoy walking somewhere and inadvertently breathing in someone else's cigarette smoke. It's bad for the smoker, plus the people surrounding them, even outdoors. And when it concerns children being subjected to their parents smoking it riles me even more.

I suppose I am just VERY anti smoking. It's expensive and it ruins ones health. If people need any more encouragement than that, then I really wish I could stop the world and get off.

*one's

Stupid iPhone autocorrect.

If we start giving out "incentives" where does it stop?

To stop drinking when PG? To not be obese? To brush our teeth?!

A baby whose mother smokes in the house is at a disadvantage - but less so than one who was exposed to it all through gestation, clearly.

If a mother goes back to smoking a few cigarettes outside the back door, that's the next thing to tackle because it's not ideal. But it is still an improvement on smoking through pregnancy.

Meh - I maintain it's an incentive. The recipients of the "reward" aren't people in power. They're addicts who may require more help than others to change (for many of the reasons listed above).

The assumption here is that everyone knows the dangers of smoking when pregant. I don't think that's necessarily correct (again, for many of the reasons listed above), but I do imagine attending smoking cessation course would be a great time to learn more about it.

Knowing the utilitarian logic of the NHS, the answer to 'where does it stop' is quite simple. It will stop when the cost of the incentive is greater than the cost of the treatment for the untackled disorder.

*If we start giving out "incentives" where does it stop?

To stop drinking when PG? To not be obese? To brush our teeth?!*

Well, in terms of incentives that are in the best interest of unborn babies, the first two would be great! But of course you are being stupid and still hung up on the massive unfairness of unborn babies' health being protected if it costs a few quid in vouchers given to their mums. Bloody babies, stealing my taxes.

Bloody babies, stealing my taxes