Stanley 'Tookie' Williams

[Cory]

Originally Posted by sciencenerd

[political disclaimer]
I will keep my personal views on this issue private because I have learned that for me at least, it is best not to discuss politics with others. It tends to turn into a large debate that only causes hard feelings, something I definitely want to avoid. The opinions I am writing here may or may not be my own, I am simply trying to illustrate a point. The issues of abortion and the death penalty can be very different, depending on how you look at it. I'll take the role of the anti-abortion pro-death penalty citizen here, and try to demonstrate how these two positions, which may seem contradictory to begin with, can be reconciled.
[/political disclaimer]

The death penalty is a punishment devised to punish those who have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have comitted an unforgiveable crime, such as coldhearted murder. The issues with the death penalty are whether it is humane to kill someone no matter what they have done, and whether the death penalty is effective in detering crime.

Abortion is the pratice of eliminating an unborn fetus at some point during pregnancy. The fetus has certainly not comitted any crimes, and killing it will obviously not deter many criminals! These are the problems associated with the death penalty, and it is evident they do not apply to abortion. The issue with abortion is whether the fetus should count as a human being or not.

Because these are two entirely different issues, it follows that someone could have a certain opinion on one, and an entirely different opinion on another with no contradictions between them.

While you certainly can choose to call a fetus a collection of cells, or a human life, pro life advocates choose the latter.

Bill's point is how can you justify killing a human being for one reason, when you can't justify killing a "human" (undeveloped fetus) for another reason?

All we show when we execute prisoners is that we're no better than them. We may have killed them in a more humane manner than they did their victims, but that's about it.

There's absolutely no evidence that the death penalty is an effective deterrent. We are one of the few civilized nations that actually puts people to death, and we still have an absurdly high rate of violent crimes compared to many of these countries that don't use the death penalty.

Two wrongs don't make a right, and an eye for an eye will eventually blind the entire world.