Cameron Todd Willingham Part 2?

Please show me where you read it saves 9 lives. What an absolute crock.

 

I'll find it for you in a little while.

 

Don't worry about it, I believe you read it I just can't believe any intelligent person can believe such a thing.

 

Because nobody's offered me the opportunity to rebuild it from the ground up?

 

I don't mean to derail this thread or cause it to be locked because I am enjoying the back and forth, so I'll apologize in advance if my post leads to that conclusion.

I'm just honestly curious how many of you anti-death penalty people are also philosophically opposed to the legal protections afforded women who choose to have abortions?

I'm a converted Methodist, but the one thing that has stuck with me from my Roman Catholic upbringing is the Church's absolute consistency on the sanctity of ALL human life.

No death penalty. No abortion (except in cases of rape or incest). No war (except to prevent mass-scale atrocities/genocide). Heck, I salute the Church I left for trying to address poverty as a "sanctity of human life" issue.

I'm opposed to the death penalty -- not simply because of all the bias and inconsistency in its application, which is reason enough, but because I don't believe the state should be sanctioned to feed the bloodlust of its citizenry by commiting murder.

That said, I'm extremely troubled that many people I know who would stand with me and protest the executions of convicted child rapist-murderers are the same people who believe "future children" (fetuses of any gestational progress) don't deserve equal protection under the law.

I've been told many times that my pro-life views mean I am "intolerant" or some sort of religious wacko. I obviously disagree with that assessment. I see my views merely as morally and ethically consistent.

 

Because an unborn fetus isn't a viable entity that can sustain itself.

 

Me, for the most part.

But I think that being in favor of choice is a legitimate position if you believe that the fetus is not alive yet. No inconsistency, in my opinion, between being anti-DP and pro-choice. Not necessarily at least.

 

Release the hounds!

If you can look at a wad of cells and tell me it's a human being, you are nuts. If you can look at 24-week fetus and tell me it's not, you are also nuts.

 

On the one hand, I think you have to have the death penalty, if only as an "on the books" thing that either: A) hastens guilty pleas from the obviously guilty; or B) reduces the likelihood that a criminal, while committing some act for which he could get life imprisonment, polishes off all witnesses with no fear of additional punishment.

On the other hand, as it is practiced, I am opposed to the death penalty.

 

Sez you.

 

This parallel only works if the state imposes the abortion.

I don't think anyone on this thread has offered an argument against the death penalty based solely on the "sanctity of life."

 

Az makes a good point. I said from the first post that I wanted to steer clear of the philosophical arguments about the DP and focus on how it is applied in the United States.