This thought came to me last night.

I guess I had read one-too-many posts on adoption as a victory, while suicide is a tragedy. It all came together like a head-on collision: When we ask women to “make an adoption plan,” what we are really saying is, “Die, and let me have your child.”

How often have you heard people chastise those who decided to end their lives as playing God? It is called a sin. The dead or would-be dead are weak, disturbed, selfish, short-sighted, and angry. Much discussion ensues on how suicide must be prevented. It doesn’t matter why the individual wanted to die, the act of suicide must be stopped.

But when a woman thinks about relinquishing her child, there is no outcry. Instead, she is encouraged to go through with it, not unlike spectators on a sidewalk, mocking the desperate individual on the ledge with, “Jump, jump!”