An Open Letter to Political Pundits: Convicts != Fetuses != Animals

[rowyn]

What is with this whole soundbite rhetorical argument that, somehow, one's position on the death penalty needs to be aligned with one's position on abortion and/or hunting? Is it so hard to imagine that one could believe that convicted criminals, fetuses, and wild animals are not, in fact, identical creatures and should not, therefore, be treated as though they were? I am so sick of hearing "how can she be pro-life and yet favor the death penalty?" or "how can he allow the murder of unborn children and yet oppose the execution of hardened killers?" Neither one of these positions is ethically inconsistent. They just require a marginally nuanced version of the world that does not do things like, oh, group frogs and plants in the same family because they're both green. No one over the age of ten is going to change their position on any of these things based on this line of argument. Please, stop. Thank you.

Comments

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Does the research address the policy positions held by the subjects, or their actual treatment in personal contact? (For example, by prison guards.)

It occurs to me that a voting or "official" position may well be substantially out of phase with real behavior -- but I am not familiar with Dr. Grandin's work.

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[rowyn]

A study on the correlation between actual behavior vs philosophy vs political beliefs would be interesting, too. Differences between practice and politics aren't necessarily indicative of hypocrisy, either: one can easily believe something is good without believing it should also be enforced by law.

[level-head.livejournal.com]

"In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice..."

And the distinction between good and mandated is certainly a valid one. I don't think that very many people now believe that smoking is "good for you" -- but the people that agree it's bad aren't necessarily in favor of outlawing smoking in your own home. Their polls answers would vary wildly based upon the wording of the question.

There's a hierarchy of good -- and personal liberty trumps "we're going to legislate you for your own good" in most instances, it seems to me.

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