Was considering creating this thread even before the recent flare-up on the other thread.
Smoking while pregnant or smoking in the company of pregnant women/children is a bizarrely allowed form of child abuse in my opinion. We have the dangers of doing so printed on a box of cigarettes but then say to people "you've been warned it'll damage children, but feel free to do whatever you want with that info".
Oddly enough this discussion I had in real life was sparked by Facebook. Somebody who regularly chain smokes had a child and constantly had photo's going up while heavily pregnant which showed her with a cigarette in her hand; even at her bridal shower she was smoking. Then the child was born and continued to smoke. Now the child is in a serious medical condition suffering from respiratory problems!
Only now has the mother put on a Facebook Status of "I blame myself". Guess what, you should! . Although every comment she's had on that has been one of "don't blame yourself, its not your fault". Yes it is! It bloody well is her fault. This child wouldn't be sick had she not abused her her child's body through the mother's tobacco having known what the consequences were.
In my opinion smoking while pregnant or in front of children is a serious form of child abuse. If that child was now suffering because her mother had neglected her due to a crack addiction then the consequences (to the mother) and people's reaction would be different. Well the mother neglected her due to a tobacco addiction and has caused this poor child to suffer due to her own selfish, evil addiction.
Nobody who smokes today, not a single person, does so without knowing the consequences. Nobody who becomes pregnant today does so without knowing the risks that smoking can cause to the baby. Nobody who smokes in front of others, especially children but not just them does so blind. The danger is known and to do so anyway is neglect, it is abuse. And anyone who does so is not fit to be a parent.