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Abortion

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Your Text: Insert Slimies » Insert UBB Code » Close Last Tag \| All Tags UBB Help	[quote] [b]WebShaman said:[/b] I assume from what you posted, that if Abortion was made illegal, then your position is that it is pre-meditated Murder, and should be punished as such? Is that correct? If so, then yes, you did answer it. [/quote] This is correct. Which is why I have a problem with making abortion illegal. (The phrase "premeditated murder," by the way, is legally redundant, because it is not murder without "malice aforethought." I know you know this, but I just wanted to make it clear because we're dealing with some tricky issues.) But let's be clear here: the issue of how abortion should be treated if it is considered a crime and the issue of how capital crimes should be punished are too entirely separate subjects. Many people oppose the death penalty no matter what the crime, even cold-blooded murder (which is also probably a redundant phrase). Saying that you think abortion should be treated the same as murder does [b]not[/b] necessarily mean you support the death penalty for it. I have no statistics to back this up, but we know that not all murderers are executed, and I would imagine that there are a good number who don't serve life sentences. So we have to understand that we're talking about two separate issues. In that regard, asking what sort of punishment should be attached to the crime of abortion if it were made illegal is something of a trick question, because you're leaving out the middle step. A better question would be to ask: "What sort of crime should abortion be considered if it is made illegal?" Punishment is part of sentencing and thus up to the judge in each particular case. There is indeed a recommended range of punishments for each class of crime, but ultimately punishment is decided by the court. Of course, the interviewer asked the question in that way to make it more real, and to make people think about what they were saying, but it's still something of a trick question. I kind of addressed White Hawk's statement above, but I would like to follow up: do you think, then, that Christians should oppose the death penalty? Do you consider legal execution un-Christian? (Also, if abortion were to be made legal and people were to be executed for it (shudders), it wouldn't be murder because it would be legally sanctioned. What a discomforting thought.) Gideon: interesting point about euthanasia. That raises a number of issues, but I think I need to think about it some more. On the one hand, I would say that it assumes that unborn fetuses are sentient human beings, but on the other hand there is still a fuss about euthanasizing(?) people who are no longer sentient but existing in a vegetative state. Hmm. Loading...
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