On Life and Death

There are ONLY two consistent positions on the issues of abortion and Capital Punishment; that of the Catholic Church, that "ALL life is sacred," (opposing BOTH) and the one similar to my own...that NO life is actually sacred, (supporting BOTH). A pregnant teen, seeing that having a child that early in life might anchor them both in poverty, in my view, has a right to terminate that pregnancy...which amounts to taking a life. Beyond that, an unwilling parent is also an unfit parent, at least at that time. That teen is taking a life to better her own. Society MUST have the right and the will to do the same. It is simply better that some of the most dysfunctional and destructive people in a society be excised for the greater good of the rest.

Ironically enough, of the two inconsistent views, the pro-life/anti-abortion & pro-death penalty is the most moral of the two, in that it (naively, in my view) seeks to "protect the innocent," while maintaining the ultimate punishment for the most heinous acts. I support abortion-on-demand and would MANDATE contraception and abortion (when necessary) for ALL dependent poor. I would support a requirement for DNA evidence confirming guilt (presence at the crime scene) for all death penalty cases, but I oppose our sterile sentencing with an emphasis on "painlessness." Capital punishment is SUPPOSED to be just that...a punishment. On that particular score, the adherents of Sharia Law administer a "more perfect form of justice." STILL, guilt should be firmly established. IF the concern is truly the misapplication of the death penalty, then the cure is to mandate stricter guidelines for establishing guilt. The misapplication of justice is no more an argument against the death penalty than it is an argument against prisons. Many, MANY innocent people have been imprisoned for decades...and we don't debate eradicating the prison system.