Let's suppose the USA had nationwide referendum on the following issues. How would you vote?

Question

This would probably never happen. But let's suppose that any constitutional changes or steps were made to allow the United States to have a referendum open to all citizens of voting age on the following issues.

I. Euthanasia (doctor assisted suicide)

II. Abortion

III. Same sex marriage as the law

IV. Capital punishment

Voting YES on an issue means that you support it and are voting for it to be the law, and commonly practiced everywhere (where applicable) in the USA.

Voting NO on any issue means you don't support it and it won't be a right, or an availble option to anyone.

How would you vote on these four issues?

Answer 1

No to all of them.

I. Suicide is the taking of a life, and a doctor participating in it runs afoul of the Hippocratic oath.

II. Abortion is killing. Skin is burned, ripped. Bones are broken, crushed. Skulls are cracked and brains are sucked out. It is dreadful, and the language of "choice" hides what is really being chosen.

III. Churches defined marriage long before governments. Marriage is a church sacrament. Having said that, government and employee benefits should not be limited by marital status.

IV. In the final analysis, the justification for the death penalty...is vengeance. There is no other motive...and anyone who argues pro death penalty will ultimately see the argument come down to...vengeance. The only time inflicting death on another is justified, is in self defense, including common defense.

Answer 2

No need for a vote. The Constitution covers all those issues. Abortion and capital punishment existed when the constitution was written so there was no need to mention it.
Euthanasia is a matter of personal choice and any rational person would have to doubt that the founding fathers would have a problem with it.
Same sex marriage? They probably never thought about (considering the times). Why would they (or anybody) care?

Answer 3

I. Yes, don't think it's up to the doctors to indefinitely prolong life beyond all reason and sense. If someone is in constant agony and isn't going to recover then they should have a choice to end their suffering... even more so when you consider that the massive amount of resources keeping them alive could be better spent on people who are dying of curable diseases or starvation.

II. Yes. I don't think it should be up to the government and making abortions illegal merely leads to the deaths of more women at the hands of back street abortionists rather than reducing the abortion rate anyway.

III. Yes. I don't think that the Christian church (or any other) should be able to dictate the terms of marriage, an institution that far predates the Christian church. I also don't think that the government should have any say in it either... but I do think that some of the financial benefits given to married couples without children should instead be given only to married couples with children.

IV. No. Capital punishment has never been effective as a deterrant anywhere in the world... those states with it in the US have a higher crime rate than those without it. Most criminals don't commit a crime thinking they'll get caught any way. Further and more importantly it is totally impossible to be 100 percent sure that a convicted person is actually guilty. DNA evidence and fingerprinting can and has led to false convictions in the past, witnesses are notoriously unreliable in terms of memory and notoriously vulnerable to replacing memory with imagination or suggestions given to them, etc. The chances of the state executing an innocent person is too high when one considers then massive number of cases that will occur over time... a sentence should ideally be reversible to some extent in case of a wrongful conviction.

However with that said I believe that some crimes (rape, murder, child molestation) should earn you a life without parole sentence - unless new evidence grants you an appeal in which you are proven innocent then you should never be allowed out of jail. The jails need to have conditions so that if a person is later found innocent then they can be released without extensive mental damage and in good health but if guilty then I don't think that people guilty of certain crimes should ever be released.

Answer 4

1. Euthanasia (doctor assisted suicide) - Not without a lot of safeguards to make sure that was what the person wanted and no one is pressuring the patient to make the decision. A third party's testimony that the patient wants that would not be sufficient.

II. Abortion - Pregnancy termination by means that don't kill the unborn would be ok. Not by current methods.

III. Same sex marriage as the law - yes, but priests or ministers would not have to conduct the ceremonies to keep their legal power to marry people. Justices of the Peace who were already serving when the law is passed should be allowed to refuse to conduct same sex marriages, but new JP's could be required to conduct same sex marriages or be denied the power to marry.

IV. Capital punishment - no.


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Polite Discussion, Respectful Disagreements regarding nonlethal alternatives to Abortion, Death Penalty, Lethal Weapons.

Answer 5

I. no ---i work with the elderly, and euthanasia is murder. this is why living wills are so important. you still have a choice to not have artificial life support of feeding tubes.

II. no --- it is murder, but i would consider a stipulation for mother's life, rape and incest, all of which are VERY RARE.

III. no --- i believe it should be a civil union only. marriage has its roots in religion, and don't they always argue separation of church and state. i also don't believe a man and a woman should be able to marry outside of the church. this should also be a civil union

IV. no --- again, this is murder. there are people who are falsely accused --- if they are put to death, there is no turning back. (did you know that it usually costs more to put someone to death than to keep them in prison at least 20 years?)

Answer 6

Yes on all.

Washington had a referendum on physician assisted suicide. It required review by two licensed MDs. The opposition included a bald faced lie in the voter's pamphlet, assininely insisting one's dentist could murder a patient. The state court upheld the con's right to lie in the voter pamphlet, on the grounds that state endorsed lies are a freedom of speech issue.

If abortion is illegal, should the police investigate a woman's miscarriage? Perhaps all women should be forced to undergo routine pregnancy tests between the ages of menarch and menopause, so that the state will know whether or not it might have a special new charge under its care and jurisdiction. Got to protect those unborn embryos from harm! Of course, once they are born, they can be beaten, abused, or starved by their parents--who cares? They can be denied decent medical care. If they die, so what? At least they got the chance to be born. All that really matters in the world is the precious contents of a woman's womb. Once the little bastard can breathe, it doesn't really matter what happens to it. Maybe we can bring back the draft, and when it turns 18 force it to fight in some unprovoked war in the middle east. Or maybe we can just lock it in prison where it can be gang raped until it dies. We can certainly deny it any educational opportunity, beyond what it manages to obtain on its own.

III. "Defense of Marriage" means discrimination against queers. I don't really know what "defense of marriage" is supposed to mean. I suppose if a couple of fags marry, my own marriage must be threatened by it. Somehow. Maybe my wife and I would have to divorce, if my queer neighbors wed. I don't know--it never made a lick of sense to me. But then, neither does a great deal of what these bigots spout.

IV. I don't favor capital punishment in all cases. A woman kills an abusive spouse--perhaps she should get off with five or ten years. But when reliable non eye witness forensic evidence convicts a serial killer or a killer for hire (including insurance payments), or a thrill killer--I have no great sympathy. Had Ted Bundy been executed the first time he was in prison for murder, at least two college coeds would still be alive. The hillside strangler escaped from prison. So have other convicted killers. No person who was executed ever killed another human being. That is sure fire deterrence.

Answer 7

I. Euthanasia (doctor assisted suicide): Yes (because if I were in war or somewhere isolated; why prolong the suffering of some else?)

II. Abortion: Yes (Rape, incest and when a woman's life is at sake.)

III. Same sex marriage as the law: Yes (Who is anybody to stop some else from living their life. If marriage is so sacred; why isn't it respected with more reverence from those who hold it in such high esteem? Besides, let the Gays and Lesbians be just as misable in marriage, or content as the rest of the committed couples.)

IV. Capital punishment: Yes ( People need examples as deterrence)

Answer 8

I do not think that any of these issues should be national issues.

So assuming that the referendum would make it a national law then I would vote no on all of them.

However I am not completely against euthenasia although it needs to be dealth with carefully, I think abortion should be left as it currently is, with parental notification, and I support same sex civil unions as long as we dont call it marriage, and I support capital punishment,
But I think they are all state issues.

Answer 9

While none of these are simple yes/no issues - subject to the proper safeguards I would vote
1. Yes
2. Yes (although I disagree that it should be commonly practiced - just that it be available)
3. Yes (I would be happy to call it something different if this was the hangup = just so long as all the legal benefits and responsibilities of marriage applied
4. No

Answer 10

After reading most of the answers you have received, I see why America is about to fall, listen to you people,
Kill the old and and feeble
Kill the pre-born
Anything go's who cares, nothing matters anyway

Then you wonder why kids kill each other in school? Why women drown their own children,
Why the Muslims hate our ways and our country? Have you no shame America, how dare you to ask for God to bless you, Sodom and Gomorrah where nothing compared to this filth and debauchery.