By Spencer Punnett
''What can a woman do with four children suffering from hunger, when she can't give them an education?'' asks Maria Cristina Bernat de Bonilla. ''To me it seems more unselfish - she's a better mother - if she gives up a child so it may have a better future.''
If you live in Colombia, as Mrs. Bonilla does, this is a controversial line to take. But it's a view this lawyer from the city of Cali defends with passion.
Mrs. Bonilla is talking about destitute Colombian mothers who sign release forms allowing their children to be adopted. Over the past nine years, she says, she has helped place some 150 Colombian children with adoptive parents throughout the United States - and about 300 with Europeans.
Although shifting government policies prohibit her from participating at present in the adoption process, Mrs. Bonilla still keeps in touch with the adoptive families she has brought together. During a recent visit to Boston, she described how some of the Colombian mothers who gave up children have come to her later for news.