Kant and Mill

Hospitals have the moral obligation to conduct routine tests on pregnant women for substance abuse without first obtaining the patient's consent. This case has raised four issues: the importance of obtaining informed consent before carrying out a drug screen on a pregnant patient; the importance of waiving the constitutional right of the pregnant patient against self incrimination before carrying out a drug test on a child or a mother; the legal obligation of the hospital to report positive drug tests to a branch of law enforcement or the department of family and child services; and the potential liability for the hospital for failure to report positive drug results to such law enforcement agencies (Vance, 2009).

The above scenarios imply that hospitals should test pregnant women for drug use without their consent. Whether legal or not, doctors, nurses, or clinicians should run these tests on pregnant women during their normal course of treatment and antenatal checkups. Of course, the patients should always be informed of such testing after they are conducted. They should also be persuaded to waive their constitutional rights before these tests are conducted. This protects the hospital from self incrimination in situations where some patients sue the hospital for infringing their rights. Tests should be conducted with the interest of protecting the unborn child. If illegal drugs are found in the blood stream and during urine screening of the pregnant women, the hospitals should take it upon themselves to counsel and advice the patient of the adverse effects of drug use during pregnancy (Vance, 2009). They should then try and help them recover from drug addiction so as to protect the unborn. It is morally right for the hospitals to educate them regarding drug use and help treat their addiction, rather than reporting them to law enforcement. The priority should always be to protect the unborn and the mother. An exception of this law is only if the patient is witnessed to be involved in illegal drug activities by the hospital (Join Together Staff, 2001).

In the best case, both the unborn and the mother are in exceptional health and unaffected by illegal or legal drug abuse. In worse cases, the mother is an addict and placing her health, in terms of high blood pressure and