Drug addicts are being paid cash to undergo sterilisation. Drug addicts across the UK are being offered money to be sterilised by an American charity.

Project Prevention is offering to pay £200 to any drug user in London, Glasgow, Bristol, Leicester and parts of Wales who agrees to be operated on. The first person in the UK to accept the cash is drug addict “John” from Leicester who says he “should never be a father”. The move has been criticised by some drug charities who work with addicts. Project Prevention founder Barbara Harris admitted her methods amounted to “bribery”, but said it was the only way to stop babies being physically and mentally damaged by drugs during pregnancy.

Drug treatment charity Addaction estimates one million children in the UK are living with parents who abuse drugs. Pregnant addicts can pass on the dependency to the unborn child, leading to organ and brain damage. Mrs Harris set up her charity in North Carolina after adopting the children of a crack addict. After paying 3,500 addicts across the United States not to have children, she is now visiting parts of the UK blighted by drugs to encourage users to undergo “long-term birth control” for cash.

John, a 38-year-old addict from Leicester, is the first person in the UK to accept money to have a vasectomy after being involved in drugs since he was 12. He said: “It was something that I’d been thinking about for a long time.

“I won’t be able to support a kid; I can just about manage to support myself.”

The question is..should people who cannot care for their children (financially or otherwise) be allowed to procreate? Maybe if it’s voluntary it’s OK, but how long will it remain that way? It seems we have been down this slope before.