Drug addict the first man in Britain paid to have vasectomy

A 38-YEAR-OLD drug addict has become the first man in Britain to be paid to have a vasectomy as part of a controversial US project, the London Evening Standard reports. 

The man, who wishes to be known only as John, was paid £200 ($320) by US charity Project Prevention, which launched the project to stop drug addicts from having children.

John, who appears in BBC London's Inside Out program on Monday night, has been addicted to opiates for 15 years and involved with drugs since he was 11. He said the prospect of getting cash convinced him to undergo the procedure.

"It was kind of what spurred me into doing it in a way. It was something that I'd been thinking about for a long time and something that I'd already made my mind up that I wanted to do. Just hadn't got round to it," he said.

Project Prevention was founded by Barbara Harris, of North Carolina, who adopted four children from a woman addicted to crack cocaine. She said the children struggled with the addiction passed on to them by their mother.

"I got very angry about the damage that these drugs do to these children," she said.
The charity has paid more than 3500 American men and women addicted to drugs or alcohol to not have children and is now offering the service to addicts in the UK.
Read more about the controversial project in the London Evening Standard.