Speak Up

I would have to agree that being pro death on one issue and pro life on another is totally oposite. I am also pro life and I would have to say that you must stand for o against both of these things or else you are a hypocrite like you say. I can see why some people would be pro death and pro life because its obvious that you would want to kill a person who does wrong and save a childs life. I just see it both ways, even though its not how i feel. Really good thought though...I never thought about it.

I'm pro life too, both in abortion and in penalty, but I can see how Bush might rationalize supporting the death penalty. Criminals sentenced to death have already had a chance to live a life, and they messed it up. They may deserve death. Unborn babies, on the other hand, haven't had a chance to live yet. They are innocent.
Now, these aren't my views, but it is a logical rationalization of this apparent hypocrisy.

I agree. The death penalty is getting out of control. It should be stopped. Even though someone has killed someone, doesn't give you the right to kill that person. George Bush needs to question his morals and his philosphies.

I agree, Bush is a hypocrite. This can also be said with the war in Iraq. He's Pro- Life but he wants to Bomb Iraq.

I disagree. The way Bush has rationalized his views is hypocritical, yes. However, I am very pro-choice when it comes to abortion because I do not believe that a fetus is a life. It is a potential life. If that potential life will live with neglect once it is born or in poverty or with parents that didn't want him/her, then it should not be born. If it could die or the mother could die, then it should not be born. The death penalty is taking a life that already exists. Even though most people on death row probably deserve to die, they even more deserve to suffer. And what if the judicial system was wrong in convicting a person? This happens, and that person certainly doesn't deserve to die for somebody elses crime.

I don't believe that Bush is a hypocrite, nor do I believe that the death penalty needs to be put to an end. Previous posts have rationalized Bush's thought on pro-life babies, pro-death penatly. Many other Americans also rationalize this way. I don't think that the death penalty will ever end. It is really a part of human history, and has always been. "An eye for an eye..."

I should hope that the death penalty will end someday because it is an extemely old-fashioned way of dealing with things. Doesn't it make more sense for criminals to suffer for the rest of their natural lives than to be put out of their misery. I am pro-choice because I do not feel that any laws should be put on any woman's body, but I believe that killing these criminals would be giving them the easy way out.

First of all abortion and the death penalty are two totally different things. The difference lies in the life and the choices made in the life of the two individuals. The unborn baby is innocent and pure, whereas the criminal has been proven “beyond a reasonable doubt” of a crime. One is the killing of an innocent life and the other is the rightful execution of a convicted criminal. Because of this, I think there is a definite line between abortion and the death penalty.

Well, i don't really know what i am because i have different view from both sides. to me i would say that i'm on neutral grounds with this on because i think that there should be a death sentence but then there had to be a very good reason to why they should do that. I don't want to just focus on one point of view and try to argue things out because that never gets you anywhere. Also you might have your own opinions on many different things because you are entitled to your opinions. I just don't like to take one side because it seems to never work out for me. I just stick with my own views and agreed with what people say.

Danny Liu has brought up an excellent point. What has an unborn child ever done to deserve death? Whereas as a person a death row has obviously killed someone and therefore must be punished. Both of these issues are totally different and should not be compared.

A child is not a child until it is out of the whom. If it has not been born then it is just a fetus. A fetus is not a baby or a child. If it is still apart of the mother then it's her choice on what to do with her body. A child dosn't have rights until it's born!

I've never believed much in the eye for an eye belief. It was Gandhi that said, "An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind."

Aren't we lowering society to the same level as the murderer when we take an eye for an eye? There is such a thing as justice, but to exact the ultimate penalty in such matters casts a harsh light on a supposedly enlightened society. We're living in a time when we often hear phrases such as, "I don't get mad, I get even" or "send the terrorists to hell in the name of God." That was not the teaching of a loving and forgiving God given to us in the Bible.

Sorry for the sermonizing and mentioning the Bible. While I don't consider myself a Christian I still find myself agreeing with many of those teachings in the New Testament, especially in a matter such as this.

And then there's this:

http://www.deathrowspeaks.info/hopper2.html

We had this discussion in class last week and I would agree that it is totally hypocritical. How a judicial system that bases everything on equality can okay killing criminals but not fetuses is crazy. It is selective killing and it is not equality and it does not value human life, only some human life.

To say this is hypocracy is inane. pro-life and pro-death penalty are not mutually exclusive.

Pro-lifers just want to protect a baby's right to live (science does show us that it is a living person). They belive a mother does not have the right to kill the baby. To say that she should be able to is to say that a mother can discontinue the child's life at any time, say, when it is 2, 4, or even 18. Why draw the line at before birth?

Pro death penalty wants to offer punishment for those who have commited murder or absurd crimes.

To say they are mutually exclusive is an absurdity. George Bush wants to offer life to those who deserve it.

Now, I'm not saying that these beliefs are my own, but I do feel that it's incorrect to call George Bush a hypocrite if he holds both of these beliefs.

Aren't we all deserving of life?

Offering life to only those who "deserve it" leaves me wondering if this is what the Nazis would have said to themselves about the Jews. They were "undeserving" of living, so they (the Nazis) used their sick methods to enforce this belief.

Let's hope that we all can do better than this.