How can Democrats support pro-choice, but not like the death sentence?

Question

Pro-choice is what Democrats support; the right for a women to choose what she wants to do. But Democrats don't support the death penalty when someone has done something horribly wrong.
Now let's think.
They would kill an innocent baby that hasn't even been born and not have someone who went one a muder rampage killed. Yes, it does sound rather harsh, the death penatly. But that person chose what they were going to do. The baby had no choice.
Hmmmmm.

Hmmmmmmmm.

Now what do you think of Pro-choice.

I just can't believe people would rather support a baby not being alive but a criminal who's had a chance at life having that life.

:P

Sry, just had 2 say that.

Answer 1

Choice is to make a decision on what to do. The same way I am pro-choice and chose to have my child. It is a quirk but most Dems I know support the death penalty. You see the contrast the same way in the Republican party Pro-life and for the death penalty.
I understand the point of view of the Dems wherein they do NOT support the death penalty for the simple reason that there are more and more cases of people being freed from prison after being on death row for crimes they did not commit. This is why the " Innocence Project" exists.
This is why they really have to do their " due diligence" and not bury their heads in the sand when evidence appears to exonerate someone on death row and the government fights it because they hate to admit they were wrong. Case in point, man in TX, Cameron T. Willingham was executed in 2004 for killing his 3 daughters. It appears that the man was completely innocent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/us/03execute.html?ex=1304308800&en=33752a7cfaefc138&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Answer 2

I still don't see your rationality. I would suggest that both the death penalty as well as abortion is wrong. We all know the abortion arguments so I wont go there.

However talking about death penalty, it's a huge hypocrisy to state that it is considered "something horribly wrong" (your words) to murder yet you advocate the state or government to do the same with the criminal. Secondly do some research it actually costs more for a criminal to be charged/acted on the death penalty as compared to life imprisonment. Sounds like a stretch but it's the truth, do some research. There's an automatic appeal in all death penalty cases not to mention the whole process of the actual punishment; last meal, paying guards to commit that "horribly wrong act", etc. Research the statistics and you'll be surprised.

Lastly to all of you that argued the fetus is not a baby, human. I would argue the opposite, the baby is more of a human than that criminal will ever be. Whether you personally classify a fetus as a human being or not is based on your slanted opinion but regardless of opinion is the fact that that fetus WILL become a human being, that is if it doesn't have it brains sucked out with a huge vacuum.

Answer 3

It's an interesting point. And yes, (the flip flop argument someone brought up) it is logical to be pro-life and pro-death sentence. Pro-death sentence is in response to having wrongfully taken a life. It's the difference of innocence of an unborn and guilt of a post-born.

To be pro-choice, but anti-death penalty is illogical. The only argument is that abortion does not take a life. But wait-since the courts have determined abortion is limited legally to the first trimester, we can all agree that life has been determined to begin in the womb. The only question is how long after inception is the legal beginning of life. This is moving target that at any moment might be moved closer and closer to life begins at connception, which would take the guess work out of when abortion is legally defined as murder. Biologically, there is no doubt- abortion is murder. Sure, the baby may have died before birth. So. A murdered man was maybe going to die of a heart attack a week after his murder. It's murder nevertheless.

Ready for a shocker?? I'm a pro-abortion conservative (and I agree with a death penalty). In my mind, the last thing we need on this planet is more babies born to irresponsible parents who (especially) don't want their babies.

Answer 4

The thing you're not considering is the "legal" definition of when a fetus becomes a human life. Pro-Choice supporters believe that a fetus that is not a viable life until it has reached a certain age. So, in their mind, they are not killing a human, they're getting a procedure to remove an unwanted growth.

This is a debate that will never be resolved.

When it comes to corporal punishment, advocates see the death penalty as a deterrent that works. As you know, the prisons have thousands of inmates who are actually innocent (several are released every year as investigations are reopened). Taking the life of an innocent person is reason enough to abolish corporal punishment forever.

This debate can be resolved with compassion. The death penalty does not work as a deterrent.

Answer 5

I am against the death penalty because juries can and do make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes don't come out until years later. If we give a person life in prison without parole and it turns out the jury was wrong, you can release him. If you give him a needle, then you can never undo the error.

As for abortion, I think we need to address the PROBLEM, not the SYMPTOM. The PROBLEM is unwanted pregnancies. It stands to reason that if there were no unwanted pregnancies, there would be no abortions. But as a society, we spend millions of dollars each year trying to outlaw abortion or prevent it from being outlawed instead of putting that money to better use through education and prevention programs. We need to stop treating the symptom and start finding a cure.

Answer 6

A democrat, just as much as any labeling of a person, isn't tangible. People supposedly believe certain things and not others, but the person in most active support of anything can in a fraction of a second act in completely opposite a manner. You can not predict an organism with the capability of processing that homo sapiens posses to any degree of accuracy.

I do not have to identify or limit myself as believing anything to feel comfort in my decisions or feel comfort in answering your unoriginal question. Right now I am thinking that you have no way to prove reasonably that any life should end, or when any life begins. There is also no reasonable argument you can make for further overpopulating the Earth.

There is no right or wrong that you can outline. There is not judgement that you can popularly give.

Answer 7

Interesting generalization. I'm liberal, pro-choice, and I support the death penalty in select cases. I don't think neither abortion nor execution is murder.

I don't think the death penalty has anything to do with the value of life pertaining to the criminal but the value of life pertaining to the victim. The criminal made the choice to engage in violent and destructive behavior, and is a continued threat to the safety of society at large if allowed to live. In addition, I believe that said criminal are no longer entitled to rights that society may grant if they show no respect for codes of behavior that allow it to function.

The other issue is that I don't believe that I have the right to tell a woman what she can or can't do with her body and decisions concerning her life. I don't believe a fetus is alive, and as such has no protected rights. I'm not sure I'm a fan of abortion any more than the next human, but I'm sure not a fan of making it illegal for a woman to make that choice.

Answer 8

"They" don't kill innocent babies. Abortion is a womans issue and only the pregnant woman can make decisions concerning it. It is nobody's business. What the Democrats support is a womans RIGHT to make her own reproductive decisions...it is HER body, not the states.

The death penalty is state-sanctioned murder that is nonproductive. The only thing it does is make someone dead. It is not a deterent (if it was, all of the death rows would be empty), it doesn't bring back the dead. Strapping a human being to a table and pumping poisonous chemicals into him is murder....and is an act of revenge...it solves nothing.

Answer 9

This is mixing two actually quite different ideas, while at the same time generalizing about a political party. All democrats are not pro-choice or anti-death penalty. If they were, it would not validate your comparison. You are attempting to rationalize one idea with another, but they don't fit together. Abortion is a medical procedure, while the death sentence is a criminal punishment.

Answer 10

You're looking at it from a different perspective.

Although I am not a Democrat, I am pro-choice and anti-death penalty. It's not about life and death at all, though. My pro-choice opinion centers around individual liberty. I think we should be able to do what we want with our bodies, which is why I'm also anti-drug prohibition, anti-seatbelt laws, pro-euthanasia, etc. We should all have the ultimate right to choose what happens to our bodies.

As far as the death penalty goes, my opposition generally centers around cost. Capital punishment is significantly more expensive than life imprisonment.

So yeah, you look at the issues as innocent death and guilty death, I'm looking at it from a stand point of individual liberties and cost.

Apples and oranges.