Should we get rid of both abortion and death penalty?

El Guapo

That is a very interesting question, but you may be oversimplifying both issues.

The abortion debate usually boils down to where you believe that life begins. Pro-lifers believe life begins at conception (and therefore, logically, abortion is murder). Pro-choicers believe that life begins at birth. Both sides will dazzle you with mountains of evidence to support their case, but there is simply no way to prove either side. It comes down to what you BELIEVE.

The death penalty is a completely separate issue. I supported capital punishment for a long time, but the more I learned about it, the more I came to oppose it. In the end, several factors changed my mind:

1. By far the most compelling is this: Sometimes the legal system gets it wrong. In the last 30 years in the U.S. alone, over 100 people have been released from death row because they were exonerated by DNA evidence. These are ALL people who were found guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt." Unfortunately, DNA evidence is not available in most cases. No matter how rare it is, the government should not risk executing one single innocent person.

Really, that should be reason enough for most people to oppose it. If you need more, read on:

2. Because of higher pre-trial expenses, longer trials, jury sequestration, extra expenses associated with prosecuting a DP case, separate sentencing trials, and the appeals process (which is necessary - see reason #1), it costs taxpayers MUCH more to execute prisoners than to imprison them for life.

3. The deterrent effect is questionable at best. Violent crime rates are actually higher in death penalty jurisdictions. This may seem counterintuitive, and there are many theories about why this is (Ted Bundy saw it as a challenge, so he chose Florida â€“ the most active execution state at the time â€“ to carry out his final murder spree). Personally, I think it has to do with the hypocrisy of taking a stand against murderâ€¦by killing people. The government fosters a culture of violence by saying, â€˜do as I say, not as I do.â€™

4. Thereâ€™s also an argument to be made that death is too good for the worst criminals. Let them wake up and go to bed every day of their lives in a prison cell, and think about the freedom they DONâ€™T have, until they rot of old age. When Ted Bundy was finally arrested in 1978, he told the police officer, â€œI wish you had killed me.â€ Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (the architect of the 9/11 attacks) would love nothing better than to be put to death. In his words, "I have been looking to be a martyr [for a] long time."

5. Most governments are supposed to be secular, but for those who invoke Christian law in this debate, you can find arguments both for AND against the death penalty in the Bible. For example, Matthew 5:38-39 insists that violence shall not beget violence. James 4:12 says that God is the only one who can take a life in the name of justice. Leviticus 19:18 warns against vengeance (which, really, is what the death penalty amounts to). In John 8:7, Jesus himself says, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Jelly Bean

A fetus is innocent, and person/s on death row are not. However, I do believe in order for a person to receive the death penalty, there should be DNA to tie the person/s to the crime/s committed.

Joze

Depends on what your religion is. To me as a catholic I disagree with abortion but I agree with the death penalty. There are far too many prisoners who we pay our own tax to support their living. Did you know that people in prison get organs first if they need it than normal citizens. They basically get everything they need in prison, health, food, shelter, protection. The only thing they don't have is freedom.

Rita K

I definitely am on the pro-life side, because that unborn child is completely innocent, and has no say in the matter of their own life. However, I am for the death penalty because that person is not innocent, and they made a life-changing choice, completely aware of the consequences. Also, their actions could severely effect the lives of others (innocent lives which we also value) and so, it may be better for others in the long run to get rid of that potential danger.

swampy

Abortion takes innocent life, death penalty takes the life of convicted murderers. These two lives do not have the same value, in fact executing criminals protects other innocent life, not hard to see the difference.

im so hood :]

not that im for abortion, im actualy against it, personaly.. but i dot htink its the mothers choice.. if she dosnt want the baby, then it still wont be raised well..unless of course she puts it up for adoption..

and the death penalty, well i somewhat agree with it, but there are alot of times where the criminal dosnt deserve it..
although if the convict murdered someone, not by self deffence or whatever, then i actualy think the death penalty would be alright, because they took someones life, they dont deserve to have one of their own..

nineinchnailsnate

let the babies live

kill the other guys.

what, you wanna kill babies, but let ppl like jeffrey dahmer live?

Peter

What has a innocent life done to deserve to be terminated? Abortion is wrong, no matter how you slice it.

Comparing abortion to the death penalty is comparing apples to oranges.

If a loser takes someone's life, his/her life deserves to be taken away.

All_Stop

I think abortion should be gone, but I think the death penalty is to slack...

thomas p

I do not know who "we" are. But, I would rather live in State with a death penalty for murders. One of the few nice features of the U.S. system of law is that you can live in a State that has a body of law that conforms to your ethical point of view.

Gez

we should come up with a device to predict wether or not a fetus will commit a crime that is punishable by the death penalty...then abortions could be justified.

Lehua

I believe that the death penalty is wrong. It is killing for the sake of intimidation by example, revenge and saving money.

Considering how young women were getting abortions before, yes we should absolutely create safe, sterile places with experts to do it. It's better than young girls all across America getting back alley abortions with wire hangers, like the old days.

Ruskie

Obama = PRO CHOICE
McCain = PRO LIFE
Remember this when you vote..

If abortion is taken away there will be thousands of unwanted babies in the US going into the foster care system or worse being hurt by the parents ( the system is already overwhelmed by this, just think about that)This would be disaster.

The people in prison who are put to death is so minimal that it really would make no difference if they abolished it.

Ive seen instances when both where very good things and very very bad things. Are population would be higher if abortion was no legal. And can you imagine some people having kids it wouldn't be fair to them to be born n some families that couldn't take care of them. If the death penalty was non existent are prison system would be even more crowded then it is right now. That is why allot of politicians including barrack are trying to give lesser sentences or no sentences at all for minor crimes. Just what i think im glad both things exist and support them both even though both make me a little sick to my stomach.

kboo83

No and no....I believe in leaving it up to the woman to decide what to do. I had to have a termination done because of a tubal pregnancy so I know there are situations which really warrant that. And as far as the death penalty...let the killers and the rapist fry...

Philosopher

Even DNA testing isn't completely reliable as a means of proving guilt. If you kill someone and later find out they were innocent, you can't bring them back to life.

Also, you have to think of the family and friends of the killer. If your son/daughter/mother/father/brother/siste... murdered someone, would you want to see him or her put to death? What if they insisted they didn't do it? Wouldn't you rather have them in gaol where you could still talk to them?

Another thing is, trials aren't really fair. Poor people are more likely to get sentenced to death than those that can afford a good lawyer. In the USA, people are more likely to convict a black person. If they did legalise capital punishment, they should make it so that all lawyers working on murder cases get paid the same, no loopholes either.

On the other hand abortion isn't killing a person. The foetus is less developed than many animals we slaughter for food. Souls have not been proven to exist, and if you argue against abortion because you believe the foetus has a soul, you are arguing based on a religious belief. If you want to argue against abortion, you should also argue against the slaughter of animals.

I am in support of legalised abortion, and I support raising animals for meat (and other products), but I am against factory farming and cruelty towards animals. I also oppose capital punishment.

Angel Dumott Schunard

we shouldn't get rid of either...

rickandsabs@rogers.com

Whoa whoa whoa

Getting rid of abortion is a really bad idea
Your going to see alot of teenage girls in the hospital because they threw themselves down a flight of stairs or did other things to themselves to try and misscarry because they didnt have the option of abortion.

And How many unwanted children would there be in the world? Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt can only adopt so many, most people want their own unless their barren.

Why not just lock someone up in a little room forever as death penalty? No chance of parole etc. To be honest if someone kills 50 people for the fun of it they deserve to die.

cupcake

no, not at all. first thing is that abortion should be someones personal choice and the government shouldnt have control over what women would like to do to their bodies..say that a woman was raped and she feels disgusted with herself and doesnt want this baby, why should she have to keep it ? or if she has this baby and lives in an unstable enviorment where she cant take care of it correctly, why let her have this baby so that it can grow up mentally ill or have bad health from living in a bad enviorment. and the death penalty, think of it this way- being stuck in jail for life is worse than death penalty because in jail your living your live in a cell and that is NOT living. at least in death penalty you get out of this little cage and can do your time in the afterlife.

Aubreigh S

Yes, we should, but how could we? I wish we could.

rodrick p

I believe if right to lifers truly respect and honor life that they would be against the death penalty as well.

Steve

I don't think we're to value all life. We already value too much life. An expanded, not contracted or abolished, death penalty is what society needs, and as for abortion, the only time one shouldn't happen is when the woman in question doesn't want it to.

Aly

Yes, if you want to avoid being a hypocrite :]
It annoys me [and I'm sure most other people] that those who want to kill babies are also those saying we can't kill criminals and we shouldn't have guns to defend ourselves - well, if we can't kill a guilty person, and we can't defend ourselves, what gives us the right to kill a baby that's done nothing wrong and is already defenseless?

(NoSpaces) Von Dahl

Abortion should stay, death should go.

why be normal

Keep Abortion,not late term increase the death penalty,for child rapists as well.

It depends what you call life, some people would say that the foetus in abortion is not yet living.

foxracer586

no i think abortion and the death penalty are very important to our society.

hungry poet

yeS! who are we to decide to take another one's life. we shouldnt be playing Gods. why should we resort to killing? its stupid and cruel. we can resolve problems (i.e. unwnated pregnancy and increased crime rates) through a more mature, upright manner. we're smarter than abortion and death penalty

I'm tight like that!

No. That's not the right way to look at abortion. If you value all life, you wouldn't stop abortion - little babies shouldn't be forced to be born into adoption or families who aren't ready to have a kid. Only someone who doesn't love children thinks abortion is wrong, because abortion saves little children from having horribly fcuked up lives. People who don't care about kids think abortion is wrong. The death penalty is wrong, though. Because we're not helping anyone out by killing someone who has just commited a crime. It's not the place of a court room to determine if someone should be killed or not.

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