If someone believes that every life is sacred, then how can a person who opposes a woman's right to choose abortion support state-sanctioned killing of criminals? Are justice and revenge the same thing? Explain your answers well, even if you use scripture or someone else's arguments to back up your position.
2006-07-02 07:53:34 · 14 answers · asked by forbidden_planet 4 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
We must distinguish between who is pro-life and who is simply pro-birth. So many conservatives, including George Bush, are pro-birth only. After a child is born, he or she is on his own and can expect little support in life from these "so-called" pro-lifers.
2006-07-03 09:45:20 · answer #1 · answered by Brandon ツ 3 · 4⤊ 0⤋
It's completely consistent.
The Bible says "Thou shalt not Murder." Check the older translations of the text. The word was not our English "to kill". It was the equivalent of our word "to murder" which means the unauthorized killing of the innocent. Same reason that killing during war is not a sin. Killing of the enemy is not only authorized, enemies who stand opposed to the good are not innocent.
So what about the pro-life folks? Those who believe life begins at conception consider embryos to be humans. That is a purely religious determination, but that doesn't make their personal belief invalid. Because their religion says that life begins at conception, and because that life is not tainted by original sin until birth, it is during pregnancy an innocent life.
On the other hand, someone convicted of a capitol crime is not an innocent life. God allowed justice where fair, demanding only appropriate mercy. Those who deserve to die for their crimes, which the Bible does allow, are not subject to mortal mercy. Because they are not innocent, it is therefore not murder.
And since the prohibition is only against murder of innocent, it allows the killing of those who are evil (those deserving capitol punishment) but forbids the killing of the unborn because they are innocent humans.
I'm sure some Christians out there can give the Biblical citations for the above statements. But looking at them clearly, the two beliefs are both completely consistent, and in harmony with the appropriate religious teachings.
2006-07-02 17:26:16 · answer #2 · answered by coragryph 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Call me a liberal, but I believe that until men can gestate, women should decide what's best for themselves. We don't need walking 'baby factories' coerced by their husbands into having 'just one more' ,you take abortion off the list of options, you've boxed the woman in to a choice that might not be right for her.
The death penalty, the state taking your life as sentence and punishment for a crime, is an equally challenging moral question. I guess you have to look at the circumstances under which the death sentence is handed out, it's never lightly, there's a lot of checks and balances there, and decide for yourself if you'd feel comfortable living next door to someone who's committed and been sentenced for usually heinous crimes. I think a life sentence is probably more appropriate in some cases, but you have to decide for yourself, on that one...
2006-07-02 15:03:52 · answer #3 · answered by gokart121 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Abortion is the taking of an innocent life. Capital punishment is the death of a person who has been found guilty of a heinous crime in our society. The justice system has voted on the punishments for crimes and this person has committed a crime that falls within the perameters of that punishment. The guilty have had their day in court while the baby who has not had the privilege of even drawing it's first breath is killed purely for convenience sake. It is for the convenience of the mother with no consideration for the baby she carries. It is the ultimate in selfish behavior!
2006-07-02 15:16:35 · answer #4 · answered by Barbara U 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well an unborn child is innocent and never hurt anyone, if someonre takes a life, abuses children or rapes someone, they deserve what they get,I beleive in the death penalty, but not abortion. Why should the government use tax payers money to take care of people that are just taking up space.
2006-07-02 17:49:52 · answer #5 · answered by janet s 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe all life is precious as all life is created by God. Abortion is the taking of a innocent child. The death penalty, though over used. is necessary as some of those among us are so bad as death is the only way. They are not innocent and had a choice in what they did. What did the child do that warrented death????
2006-07-02 15:00:24 · answer #6 · answered by driveawreck 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The same ideology would state pro-life and support war . ( Sanitary Land fill) It always amazes me how religion can always be twisted to justify war . Thou shalt not kill . ( except if you declare war ) I missed the second part . The bible is always used in the support of evil as much as good . Satan can quote scripture better than any man of god .. God placed right from wrong in the hearts of all men . God tells me war for money or revenge is never in his plan .
2006-07-02 16:55:04 · answer #7 · answered by J D 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I keep asking myself the same question ... are the pro lifers only pro unborn life, if indeed you can call a fetus life ... while baying for blood demanding the death penalty ... a life is a life, right?
2006-07-02 15:00:43 · answer #8 · answered by Sashie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe it is. The moral law of "not killing" is an absolute law, not a relative one. Of course there are circumstances in which we FEEL certain deaths are justified, but what we feel changes with the wind.
2006-07-02 14:56:47 · answer #9 · answered by truthyness 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's the fishermans approach to life, throw em back till they're bigger.
2006-07-02 14:57:57 · answer #10 · answered by alltheanswers 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋