ABSTRACT
The term "crack baby" refers to infants and children who were exposed to crack cocaine during their mothers' pregnancies. The range of potential "signs" of damage associated with crack cocaine use during pregnancy is extensive. Early research attributed respiratory and urinary tract difficulties and even sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) to cocaine exposure in the womb. The reported problems of "crack babies" are multidimensional and go beyond the medical domain. They include the burden so-called crack children place on adoptive parents, biological grandparents, school teachers, and hospital staff, as well as on society in general. The early, albeit contested, emphasis on the neurological damage that "crack babies" suffer may signal a new political landscape, where public resentment might well shift away from the so-called "welfare queen" to a new "bio-underclass". The term "crack baby" symbolizes biological determinism and is compatible with a more general trend to see identities and life trajectories as set from birth.
