The figures are appalling. In the U.S. every year 40,000 children are born suffering with fetal alcoholic syndrome disease (FASD). In Canada there are more than 300,000 children with this disease. The lifetime cost for each child is five million dollars. So in Canada the cost to taxpayers of caring for those with FASD is 600 billion, the size of the national debt. In the U.S. the figure is six trillion. How can this medical and social tragedy be solved?
Destroying your own body with alcohol is one thing. But destroying forever the mind of an unborn child is maternal madness. Today, FASD is the most common cause of preventable mental retardation in North America.
