I recently received the following email:
“Why don’t you look at why capital punishment is not an issue in this election. Why does the Republican party feel this is OK, but abortion is not? Why doesn’t the church speak out about this absurd position of being against abortion yet for capital punishment?”I’m always amazed at this response. Capital Punishment differs from abortion in both quantity and quality of killing.
- Quantity.
Currently there are 1.3 million babies surgically killed each year LEGALLY in the United States (who knows how many chemically through the morning after pill and what not). According to the Death Penalty Info.org (I know nothing about this site except it looks very anti-capital punishment) in the US there were 65 executions in 2003, 51 so far this year and 936 in total since 1976. Since 1973, the year abortion was legalized in the US, there have been 40 million babies killed surgically.
So let’s see. About 70 deaths per year for capital punishment v. 1.3 MILLION per year for abortion. 936 in the past 30 years for capital punishment v. 40 MILLION for abortion. Hmm. It’s a tough decision on which issue should have our priority. If it’s the death penalty, then I suppose Stalin was right – 936 is a tragedy but 40 million is a statistic.
- Quality.
What I mean by quality is first, the quality of justice, and second the method of killing. Abortion kills an innocent life EVERY time. The baby is given no judge, no jury, no lawyer to represent him, no justice, no warning. The death penalty’s victim is a criminal who has been found guilty by a jury and who 95-99% of the time IS in fact guilty. And in the United States, Capital Punishment isn’t available unless it’s accompanied by aggravating circumstances (e.g., rape, kidnapping, torture, etc., etc.). So not only has the person killed but it’s usually been a horrible, unspeakable crime. He’s been tried and convicted. He’s been given appeals (usually years of appeals). He’s been found guilty. He knows when he’s going to die (in my mind a gift that many people aren’t given).
Method of Killing. The method of killing used in the death penalty varies. Although every method used seems bad to the average want-to-live citizen, most of the methods have evolved because they have been seen as the most humane way of killing someone with the least amount of pain. The electric chair, gas, lethal injections, although each appear gruesome each evolved to give a more humane death. Again see deathpenaltyinfo.org.
Abortion methods also vary. There’s D&C, D&E, Salt Poisoning, Partial Birth Abortion, D&X, etc. What is D&X? Here’s an explanation from abortionist Dr. Haskell. It doesn’t appear that he developed it out of concern for keeping pain to a minimum. Here’s his step-by-step account of the procedure he gave at a medical seminar (one of the most gruesome accounts I’ve ever read). Here’s a nurse’s description of partial birth abortion. There is and never has been a pretense that any of these methods have evolved out of concern for the baby’s pain or suffering. Although recently there has been an effort (but not of course by pro “choicers”) to give women a chance to administer anesthesia to their babies before killing them – how humane.
- Spiritual.
There’s a spirtual angle to capital punishment that is rarely talked about and that is that it allows the criminal to focus his mind on the fact that he’s going to meet his maker. The knowledge of the time of death is in my mind a gift. He has a chance to repent. And ultimately the most important thing is turning the soul back to God, not sparing suffering to the body or lengthening life (the criminal’s victim no doubt had no such gift). Ah – here’s a quote from Dulles’ article that supports this:
“The mounting opposition to the death penalty in Europe since the Enlightenment has gone hand in hand with a decline of faith in eternal life. In the nineteenth century the most consistent supporters of capital punishment were the Christian churches, and its most consistent opponents were groups hostile to the churches. When death came to be understood as the ultimate evil rather than as a stage on the way to eternal life, utilitarian philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham found it easy to dismiss capital punishment as useless annihilation. “
Similarly, capital punishment is in my mind a measure as to how much value a society places on human life. If you have a treasure you’re going to protect it with the most severe penalty. If a life is the ultimate treasure, it makes perfect sense that those who take a life away must forfeit their own. As I recall, C.S. Lewis used more or less this argument for his belief in capital punishment in a brief discussion in Mere Christianity. And lest we forget, the Catholic Church has never been completely against capital punishment although lately it appears John Paul II is frowning on it.
I’m not a big fan of capital punishment and we as a society could do without it. But it PALES in comparison to the horror of abortion. And finally what exactly does this have to do with Republicans and Democrats? Most Democrats are pro-capital punishment – Kerry believes in it for terrorists at least (apparently his views here are about as strong and unwavering as his other positions). And I might as well throw in the fact that for all intents and purposes he’s as pro-Iraq war as Bush is so a vote for him isn’t like it’s anti-war. Which is what I heard at mass one day – that this election was about voting for an anti-abortion/pro-war candidate and an anti-war candidate. Give me a break. The capital punishment issue is a red herring that is thrown out to distract pro-lifers and to make people feel good about voting for pro-aborts.
Here’s a good article on the Kerry controversy that touches on the death penalty.
For a much more scholarly article on Capital Punishment and the Catholic Church than I could ever hope to write see Avery Cardinal Dulles excellent overview: Catholicism & Capital Punishment – a must read.