What does it really mean to be pro-life in this world today, anyway? On the one hand, we have abortion; on the other, the death penalty. How can you be for one, but not the other?
Obviously, the fundamental difference is if you believe life begins at conception. If you don't, well, this essay isn't directed to you. However, if you do, then we have set up one basis: you do not believe in killing innocent little babies. Congratulations. If you believe life begins at conception, but also believe in abortion, I suggest you read the essay "A Modest Proposal," by Jonathan Swift. Why kill them when we can eat them?
However, I did not plan to argue either for or against abortion in this essay. I came to admonish the people who are against abortion, but for the death penalty.
Admit it, you're a hypocrite. Once you break down the word "pro-life", you come to see what it really means.
Pro-from the Latin word for "for" Definition: in favor of. Life-from Old English lif. Definition: a principle or force that is considered to underlie the distinctive quality of animate beings. Put them together and you get...antiabortion!
Hold the phone. Is it just me, or should "pro-life" apply to all aspects of life, not just abortion? Of course, this is, again, only if you agree that life begins at conception and that the murder of children is wrong. But then, at the same time, no one can deny that the human being on death row is just that--a human being. And that to kill them, even if they do deserve it, is going against life. So he murdered your kin. So what? You're going to respond by killing him? I thought all that stuff about "an eye for eye" went out with Hammurabi's Code, at least in the United States. Obviously, I was wrong. The law allows people to get their revenge through an even better way--legal murder.
Therefore, how can you claim to be "pro-life," when you really aren't? In the true sense of the word, a person who is "pro-life," would respect all life, of every type--and that includes animals and the environment as well as people of any age, race, or gender.
On a more practical sense, to those people that believe the person on death row deserves to die--why kill him when you can torture him for the rest of his life?
Let me explain. Doing time in prison is hard. Have you ever been in one? Not pretty; not comfortable. Would you ever, in your right mind, want to spend the rest of your life there? Not me. I like my house, my bed, my books, and my friends. I like the freedom to wander anywhere I choose. For, essentially, that is what prisons do: they take away a person's freedom. And in America, isn't that the greatest torture of all? What life is worth living without freedom?
But I digress. In the simplest, simplest example, what do an unborn baby and a rapist on death row have in common?
Humanity. Both are human. Both have human dignity. And both have the right to life. To take that away from a human is the greatest possible crime. And we already have enough criminals in prison; we don't need the rest of the country to have their mindset as well.
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But you might want to check your citations. A Modest Proposal was a satire aimed at the discrimination the Irish Catholics faced (among other things).
Now, explain to me why you are right (re: abortion). Don't preach, actually write an argument.
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"We cannot redeem evil, we must combat it." -- Jean Paul Sartre
You make a very good point of the word "Pro-life" Even if I don't agree with most anti-abortion people, This is, in the very essence of the word, what it means.
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I saved Latin. What did you do?
so all of this anti-abortion, pro-death penalty stuff is a play around words, not addressing the issue.
pro-life has nothing to do with the death-penalty, pro-life is a term used specifically to refer to abortions.
now lets talk about abortion - the real thing
If I can save one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain. - Emily Dickinson
I've heard people who justify the apparent hypocisy in their pro-life, pro-death penalty stance by saying that an innocent child never did anything wrong, whereas someone who is convicted of something egregious has proven they don't deserve to live.
I believe that most people who consider themselves "pro-life" are really just pro-fetus. They don't care what happens to the thing after it's born. They're comfortable forcing a mother to have a baby while advocating against providing children's health insurance or even adequately funding schools... because that would just be intrusive!
It isn't about life. It never has been, it never will be. It's about power. It's about taking away a woman's choice and keeping uppity women in their place. Pro-lifers are only pro-life up until the baby crowns. Then you're on your own. Thanks for choosing life! Here's a parting gift -- a screaming infant.
Pro-lifers also find it awesome to bomb abortion clinics, stalk and attack doctors, take pictures of women entering clinics and post it to the Internet, and publish the addresses and phone numbers of clinic workers. Doesn't sound like it's all about the babies to me.