THE FALLACY OF FATALITY

Or, On Abortion and the Death Penalty

I had been thinking for quite some time what to title this blog. I had been wondering when I was going to do it. I had initially thought it up on New Years Eve, but I decided it would be too morbid to post on such a night. So, here we are. Today there is a pro-life march in DC, so I figured that now's better than ever.

Before reading this, to any woman who has had an abortion: Please understand that this is not directed at you. This is not a rant on the morality of the act. This is a piece that is to try and understand people's position on the matter, whether they be voters or elected officials. I am not chastising you.

People confuse me. Let's get that straight out of the way. The liberal left has been constantly hammering presidential candidate Mitt Romney for changing his position on a few issues to jockey in with national opinion and that of his base. I'm not sure what issue it was on (ironically, I think it was abortion) but the point remains the same: These people, notably the left, were criticizing him for changing his position. We're not here to argue why he did it, though, or any of that stuff.

The left platform, in general, is pro-choice for women, meaning that they choose to uphold the Roe v. Wade decision, but they are against the death penalty. I'm citing Wikipedia because for something like this, a general consensus as per the masses seems like reliable data. This is clipped (using a fancy add-on for Firefox) directly from Wikipedia. This is part of a long list of "Positions Associated With Modern Liberalism."

clipped from en.wikipedia.org

The belief in a woman's right to abortion by Roe v. Wade standards

Government role in alternative energy development

Government responsibility to supervise ports and infrastructure in the public interest

A spirit of international cooperation and strong alliances

The elimination of the death penalty

So, it's not like I'm making this stuff up. Entertain my train of thought for a few moments.

Liberals do not have a problem with a innocent human who has not yet even breathed air, let alone committed an act, be executed, but they are against a human who has been convicted through our legal system of a heinous act being executed. This does not seem to add up for me.

Now, I understand that liberals are supposed to really exemplify individual liberties, so that villain has a right to live and that woman has a right to choose about that child's future. The thing is, the villain has willingly committed the act, and presumably he knew the consequences. The baby, however, has no say in the matter, and the woman is sometimes just looking out for her own good.

I couldn't find a source on Wikipedia that explicitly stated the conservative position, but I know it to be pro-life, pro-death penalty. This means that, with the exception of incest or rape, abortion should be forbade. It also means that in cases warranting it, the death penalty should be on the table, and exercised if decided as such.

Innocent babies will be allowed to survive, convicted criminals will be tried to the full extent of the law. Of course, for an executioner, that poses all sorts of mental damage of having to execute a living developed human. I'd also like to point out that no one with much of a medical background are allowed to administer the drug cocktail in the lethal injection. The Hippocratic Oath, penned by Hippocrates in the 4th century BC, explicitly states:

clipped from en.wikipedia.org

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

It states that the doc can't give a deadly drug to anyone, or help a woman with an abortion. Some modern additions to the Hippocratic oath state:

clipped from en.wikipedia.org

To practice and prescribe to the best of my ability for the good of my patients, and to try to avoid harming them. This beneficial intention is the purpose of the physician. However, this item is still invoked in the modern discussions of euthanasia.

Never to do deliberate harm to anyone for anyone else's interest. Physician organizations in most countries have strongly denounced physician participation in legal executions. However, in a small number of cases, most notably Oregon^[2] and the Netherlands^[3], a doctor can perform euthanasia, by both his and the patient's consent.

Which brings me to my next point. TIME magazine recently featured an article that was pretty anti-death penalty. The major case they made is that these convicts aren't being executed properly, as the people doing it don't have medical background and don't know the proper amounts of which chemicals, how to mix it for the patient's body mass, how to inject it, how to find a vein, et cetera.

I would call Roe v. Wade almost a decision that had to be made the way it was. Did you know that the only constitutional amendment that limited our freedoms was Prohibition, which was repealed with another amendment? Limiting another freedom would have had repercussions that echoed for a long time. However, the defined legality of it in Roe v. Wade is not a point in this article.

I personally think that abortion is a bad idea. It is the holiest of all holies in the church of instant gratification. Sleep around now, write off the consequences 9 months later. What really bothers me is that being responsible about their sexual habits, and understanding that when he puts his in hers, it makes a baby not just a good time, would go a long way. Other forms of contraception (either the latex or the pills) are also available. What messages does this send to young people about their sexual habits? That there is no consequence?

Ultimately, I think a respect for life is necessary. That means understanding and accepting the consequences of actions, be them having unprotected sex or knocking off a few coworkers. The consequences of those, respectively, are a baby (that's why those body parts are there) and a death sentence. I think that the pro-choice, anti-death penalty position is wrong. There's no consequence.

-Ze Baron