Addict defends being paid £200 for sterilisation

THE first person in Britain to be sterilised in return for a £200 fee from a controversial American organisation has defended the decision as the "most responsible" act of his life.

Alan Mitchell, 38, who has battled heroin addiction for 16 years, accepted the fee from Project Prevention, a US organisation dedicated to having addicts sterilised. The addict, who has been off heroin for the past 18 months, but admits to being addicted to methadone, said he was not fit to be a father.

He contacted the organisation online and was invited to become the first British person to take part. The organisation has paid 3,500 addicts, mostly women, to be sterilised in America but Barbara Harris, the founder, has brought her crusade to Britain after receiving a 12,500 donation from an anonymous businessman. Harris recently visited Scotland and caused embarrassment by approaching a Glasgow mother who was not an addict.

Yesterday Mitchell said: "Having this vasectomy is the most responsible thing I've done in my entire life. What sort of father could I possibly be? What sort of chance would a child of mine have? This may sound naive but I feel my situation has got nothing to do with the wider picture.

"That money might have made me think, 'Oh I'll do it now', but I would have had a vasectomy anyway. With others though, there are potential problems."

Mitchell trained to be an Anglican priest during a period of rehabilitation but later returned to drugs.

He also defended the controversial plans and said: "I can understand all these cries of eugenics, but I don't honestly believe there is anything Nazi-like about what Barbara is doing."