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

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you're saying that everyone has to be pro-life AND anti-death-penalty AND a total pacifist in order to be ethical. Your argument doesn't actually indicate a conflict between pro-life and pro-death-penalty stances, you're just saying that killing is always wrong (and, in addition, that abortion is killing).

[elusivetiger.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's what I'm saying - voluntarily killing another human being is immoral. This is, to me, the only consistent position when faced with all these issues.

This is not to say that people don't occasionally do immoral things, and have their reasons for them - only to underscore the basic theme that it is, in fact, wrong, and anything further is rationalization.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I think you're misusing the terms 'consistent' and 'rationalization' in order to comfort yourself about the unpopularity of your own moral choices.

It's just rationaliation, in other words.

[elusivetiger.livejournal.com]

I am uninterested in what you think, but it is noted. Holding principles and striving to adhere to them is not a popularity contest.