Liberals: Can you explain why you're for abortion, but against the death penalty?

Question

I mean how is it okay to end an innocent life, but not the life of a convicted murderer?

In my anatomy and physiology textbook, it states that life begins at conception. Life, even at a cellular level, is still life. I'm not religous.

I'm not saying all liberals have the same beliefs, but those that believe in the stated positions are liberals.

Following the premise that you're not "legally" alive until birth, why do people get charged with double murder if they kill a pregnant woman?

So basicly, it seems that you don't consider an unborn child human and the death penalty inhumane...I'm more confused now.

Answer 1

Ok, i want to know this answer also. I know some people can not philosophically define life yet, but it makes sense that the fetus is alive since it has all the chromosomes it needs to make a human life. A lot of the people who use philosophy in this situation use it as a way to make themselves feel better of what they are doing. I agree with you, i see the question flipped so often towards conservatives and they give honest, good answers. Now, i would love to see some good answers that don't involve philosophy here.

EDIT: I would like to make some facts straight. How in the world do people know how many innocent people have been put to death using the death penalty? I would like to see the facts on that one and on the one that it is cheaper to leave a criminal locked up for life than to put him/her to death. I highly doubt that one. Oh one more thing, abortion from rape consists of such a low number that it can't really be considered an excuse on why abortion is legal. I understand that maybe it should be for that reason, but that reason and the mother has a chance to die from the birth.

Answer 2

Not all who see themselves as liberals hold those views, but much of the revulsion towards the death penalty stems from the fact that it is often misapplied and it does not serve the purpose it is intended to. On the former, executing a person convicted of murder is very different from executing a person guilty of murder. The death penalty is also disproportionately applied to those of color and, if carried out, cannot be undone. On the latter point, there is no evidence that the application of the death penalty has any deterrent effect at all on future crimes. As for abortion, people have vastly different ideas of when life begins for a human being. You may believe that an embryo or fetus is a fully fledged person, but many do not. It is not a question of when we can first be considered "alive", it is a question of when we truly become human. Is being a human no more than being a member of the species Homo sapiens, or do we become human when we develop into self-conscious and rational beings? With regard to this perhaps unanswerable question, is it not better to allow a woman to choose than to make every woman's choice for her. Personally, I am not completely comfortable with the idea of abortion, but I am far less comfortable in making a decision for a pregnant woman who finds herself in a situation that I, as a man, can never be in.

As an addendum, I would like to respond to your third additional point. What you say speaks more about the criminal justice system than it does the issue of abortion. Prosecutors will charge a defendant with two counts of murder largely because they can and also because it would likely aid in getting a conviction and in getting the murderer of an adult woman a much longer sentence. I also can't help but wonder at your second added point. Does this mean that Barry Goldwater was an arch-liberal?

Answer 3

Shall I rephrase the question? Conservatives: how can you be for the death penality, but against abortion?

Liberals are in favor of legal abortions for many reasons. 1) Illegal abortions are much worse. 2) There are circumstances where persons need to have an abortion: a) rape b) incest c) personal health d) nonviable fetuses 3) Conferring personhood on blastocysts isn't sensible public policy (and why would blastocysts' rights supercede persons' rights?) 4) 'Life' is a fuzzy definition. Life--legally--begins at birth, not conception. In that case, there is nothing alive or innocent about an aborted fetus.

Not all liberals are in favor of legalized abortions.

On the death penalty, the only argument that I think works legally against the death penalty is that the number of innocent people sent to their death by the state is a number greater than zero. The state cannot undo an unjust execution. If the death penalty were not an option, then people sent unjustly to prison can be given at least some of their life back.

Not all liberals are against the death penalty.

Answer 4

First of all, I reserve my primary support for living things that have already drawn breath.

Sure--at some point in time, a healthy fetus will be viable--and that is the difficult part about choosing abortion. However--make no mistake--a one month pregnancy is NOT the same. You can argue til you're blue in the face that the one month old fetus will BECOME a viable fetus if only the mother is compelled to let that happen. But what if her birth control method failed--and she doesn't want to be pregnant? What if her health is poor? Would you tell her to leave it in God's hands and risk her own death? Come on...

The problem I have with many so-called "pro life" folks is that they want to make biology a woman's destiny if birth control fails. As much as pro-lifers like to argue that many unwanted preganancies result from carelessness, by the same token, so many seem to want laws that tar all "offenders" with the same brush, regardless of circumstance.

Motherhood is not a one-size-fits-all condition that all women look forward to--and sex is not just for procreation. And while the pro-life movement claims to have the same goal as the pro-choice folks--fewer abortions--the pro-lifers consistently rebel against most forms of birth control that would achieve this. There is such an anti-woman thread in the pro-life argument.

I'm also for the death penalty. But again--as with abortion--it's a case by case judgment, not a blanket statement. If someone kills one person in a crime of passion and appears to be reformed--should they be put to death? No.

But a serial killer? Yessirree. Repetition and pre-meditation is good enough reason to seek the death penalty, in my opinion.
Again--there are grey areas here, just as there are for abortion.
But the black and white need no deliberation.

Don't assume that all liberals--or moderates--are as inconsistent as you believe us to be.

Answer 5

1. Not all liberals are for abortion and against the death penalty. But I see a definite reason in your question between "innocent" and "convicted". Many people who have been put to death after being convicted or who have been on death row have later been proven innocent.

2. Many people who are militant anti-abortionists advocate killing doctors who perform abortions. How is that any different from your question? They have blown up planned parent clinics which give out information on birth control and provide early information and examinations to people who want children but who do not have health insurance and otherwise would be without medical help. People have been killed in the course of those bombings.

3. Most people who condone abortion do not consider the zygote or embryo to be an "innocent life". Most do not want abortions of a baby who is aready in the foetal stages unless it is severely deformed and a danger to the life of the mother.

Answer 6

a team of cells isn't someone. That being out of how, right it rather is a speedy question : have you ever killed a spider? That became an harmless existence. there has been many, MANY errors interior the previous related to capital punishment. it rather is why there are some human beings against it. so trouble-free as that. i for my section think of there are too many human beings on the planet, so i'm involved by it. in charge or not, in simple terms rid the earth of a few human beings. it rather is unhappy nevertheless that maximum crooks are wealthy and subsequently previous the bounds of "justice".

Answer 7

I don't think being Pro-choice and For abortion is quite the same thing. I believe that a woman should choose what she feels is best for her, what's in HER body and the course of her life. The government shouldn't decide or interfere.
Since the issue of when life begins and ends is apparently controversial and people have different opinions, I don't speculate on it and until there is ONE universal scientific proof that proves that it's murder, I 'm still convinced that no 80 year old men can decide what I do with my life.
Being For abortion implies that we want that to happen whether it's life or not and that's not the case for me.
I'm against death penalty because our justice system isn't infallible.

Answer 8

while I have different feelings on abortion. as I am a guy, I can say how I feel as a father, and as somebody who drove his girlfriend to get one. It was her choice and her body. She listened to my opinion. While we did not agree, I was not going to leave her alone. As a Dad, I would want my daughter to have one, and by a great doc. simply so she could continue with her life is that is what she should chose. If she kept it, she will be getting a GED, and getting her *** a job.

As far as the death penalty, the only reason I dont like it, is that it often costs taxpayers more money than life in prison. I truly feel that life in solitary is reasonable, just warehouse them. Most of it can be automized so cost would be minimal.

Answer 9

If a life was conceived by rape, the woman has a right to abort. If a childbirth endangers the mother's life, the child should be aborted. If an innocent person is executed, it is wrong. If you believe so strongly in execution, why not impose the death penalty on politicians who send people to their deaths for some unjust war??

Answer 10

Um...I'm a liberal & I'm Pro Choice, but that doesn't mean that I'm "for abortion." And I'm also pretty much in favor of the death penalty for certain criminals.

Don't generalize.