(05-18-2021 11:08 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I am fundamentally opposed to the death penalty because there have been too many erroneous executions. And yes, one is too many. I admit that I have a hard time reconciling that position with my feelings about abortion--basically pro choice with limitations.

I do believe that life begins at conception, and that the unborn have rights. But so do mothers, and up until some point (probably viability) the rights of the mother carry more weight. After that, there must be extenuating circumstances, such as incest or rape or health of the mother or child (and to the extent that those were known earlier, why was action not taken earlier?). It's not a position in which I have a great deal of confidence intellectually, but like most political matters it strikes me as the lesser of evils. I guess my thinking is that if the time and money and effort expended on both sides of that issue had gone instead to making adoption a more user-friendly option, our problems with the issue would be much reduced.

Excellent post. I personally am against abortion and the death penalty but I understand the complexities of the abortion issue.

I question whether politicians actually want to come up with a solution to the abortion issue. Keeping it unresolved seems to keep them in power one way or the other.