Reply #33: And you know this how?

[gratuitous]

Are you a good friend of hers? Were you closely involved with her family? If that's the case, why weren't you more of a friend to her, and help her get to some assistance? The bottom line is neither you nor I will ever know what drove her to this extremity, or what exactly the circumstances were. Would a more comprehensive social safety net have helped her? Maybe, maybe not. But it surely wouldn't have hurt.

I'd feel a lot more comfortable sitting in judgment on her if there was some reasonable assurance that she had help from the get-go (by which I mean pre-natal medical care for nutrition, etc.; post-partum medical care; parental advice folks readily available by telephone; and so forth) and she actively refused that assistance. As it is, we know that she had no job, three kids, and who knows what in the way of prospects.

She will, of course, be subject to criminal sanction, and probably spend the rest of her life in prison. Pardon me for not joining the judgment parade, but it's my feeling she doesn't require my tut-tutting to feel worse than she does right now, or for the rest of her life.