LHIA: Human Life II (Death Penalty)

It can be confusing how in many instances those that label themselves pro-life in terms of abortion also manage to support the death of criminals in the form of capital punishment. Furthermore, it seems strange to declare that it’s okay to kill an ‘innocent preborn’ but when it comes to a criminal who’s committed vicious acts, it is not. Then of course there are the other positions inbetween, but we won’t go there simply because they don’t seem as conflicting. That being said, I don’t think any of the positions contradict eachother because they are two unique issues and should be treated as such. At some points we may encounter contradiction, but these stem from the individual expressions of opinion, not the stances themselves.

For example, if Tim claims we should cherish and promote the life of any child of God when discussing abortion, it would of course be ridiculous for him to go ahead and say we should carry out the death penalty. But it would still be sufficient to hold these two stances by other reasoning. One’s position on human life applies to both subjects, but one’s position on punishment adds an entirely new, separate element to the issue.

Similarly, some may feel they have a target on their back for believing it’s okay to kill an embryo, but it’s not okay to kill someone who has murdered. Why should they feel targeted? One may consider an embryo to be something other than a person, therefore justifying the death of an embryo but not of an adult human. One may have reasoning that is rooted practically (judicial system) than ethically, allowing them to oppose the death penalty without ever valuing the life of the criminal.

As with abortion, I’ve stayed away from the discussion of the death penalty because I’ve always questioned it. I don’t support the death penalty at this point in my life. With our current system, which is already filled with problems (ie. providing material-excess to prisoners, providing documents to the public before court proceedings, a society that treats the accused as guilty before innocent, etc.) we don’t always have the guarantee that we are convicting the correct person. Sometimes anecdotal evidence must take the place of solid physical evidence. But even if the physical evidence is there, I would rather see the killer in prison. This is enough justice for me; seeing someone pay through this eye-for-an-eye tactic gives me no satisfaction, particularly when I don’t believe they’ll go to hell.