The dangers of 'harm reduction'

Institute Update - Issue 1

The dangers of ‘harm reduction’

Why Christians must speak out against this damaging philosophy

Turning a blind eye to mainstream morality in the hope of promoting safety is the well-intentioned but flawed thinking which lies behind what is called “harm reduction”.

Harm reduction is a damage-limitation approach which has been adopted in many controversial areas.

It has been the dominant philosophy of sex education for many years, and a harm reduction approach was used to justify a “tolerance zone” for prostitution in Edinburgh.

The Christian Institute has now uncovered drugs education materials which teach children safer ways to use drugs rather than telling them to avoid drugs altogether.

Because harm reduction seeks to promote safety, it can have a very human face: When condoms are given out to kids, experts say it is to protect children from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.

When police tolerate prostitution, they say it helps them to control the situation and protect the women.

Christians must be ready to answer the challenge of “harm reduction” approaches to modern moral issues.

The fact is, harm reduction increases the very harm that it seeks to reduce.
The “safer sex” message has failed to bring about the promised reduction in teenage pregnancies, which continue to stay at an alarmingly high level.

New diagnoses of many sexually transmitted diseases have increased(1) and teenage abortion rates have gone through the roof.(2)

Local residents who lived in the Edinburgh prostitute zone said that prostitutes “took clients into our backyard to have sex; they left used condoms wherever they went; … they injected drugs in full view of the street; men looking for prostitutes propositioned female residents”. (3)

Pat Attridge, the local Councillor in Edinburgh, supported the prostitute zone but admitted: “prostitutes were travelling from other cities to the zone and the police were just caught between a rock and a hard place.”

The tolerance of prostitution, under-age sex, or drug use creates an atmosphere which encourages more of these unsafe activities.

All these things are illegal and harmful to society, yet in some areas Councils and the police have given up.

There will always be a minority who engage in these activities, but we must not put at risk the many in a misguided attempt to protect the few.

Public disapproval of anti-social activities is a very strong restraining influence on most people. Christians must work to promote this public opinion and say “no” to harm reduction.

1 http://www.phls.co.uk/facts/STI/sti_uk_data.htm as at 18 October 2001
2 Abortion Statistics Series A B nos 24 and 26, ONS
3 Letter from Alex Gordon, The Herald, 28 August 2001

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