Time to End the Execution of Children in the Womb and of Adults by Capital Punishment

It is time to end the execution of children in the womb through Abortion and adults by Capital Punishment

I have always opposed capital punishment. However, the Church has not and does not teach that Capital Punishment is intrinsically evil. She clearly teaches that every procured abortion is intrinsically evil.The recent recovery of conscience by Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon would be more impressive to someone like me who opposes both abortion and capital punishment if he also placed a moratorium on the execution of innocent children in the womb. It is time to end them both.

P>CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - On Tuesday, November 22, 2011, Governor John Kitzhaber placed a moratorium on executions in the State of Oregon. At a crowded News Conference he said "In my mind, it is a perversion of justice. I refuse to be a part of this compromised and inequitable system any longer and I will not allow further executions while I am governor."

The death penalty was reinstated in Oregon in 1984.The Governor is a physician who has expressed his opposition to capital punishment in the past. He views it as being in direct opposition to his oath as a physician. However, he has not prevented the enforcement of the punishment twice in the past, allegedly because of his oath as Governor.

This same Governor had the support of both NARAL and Planned Parenthood in 2010. He has consistently opposed the Right to Life for children in the womb. He supports legal abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. That is the execution of a human person as well. He also endorses the funding of abortion clinics with State money. They carry out the executions of innocent human persons, our first neighbors.

During the 2010 gubernatorial election, then candidate John Kitzhaber used his extreme pro-abortion stance to draw voters away from his rival, Chris Dudley, who supported ending late term abortions but touted himself as an otherwise "pro-choice" (anti-right to life) Republican. This recent move to place a moratorium on capital punishment by the Governor of Oregon reveals the hypocrisy of the current approach to life issues in many political circles.

The ACLU fawned over the Oregon Governors moratorium on the death penalty. Denny LeBoeuf, director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project wrote, "we celebrate (the) moratorium in Oregon, recognizing that capital punishment always violates human rights. This is a wonderful step toward the end of the death penalty in our country."

He referred to the moratorium announcement as a "courageous decision by Gov. Kitzhaber in Oregon" which "adds to the growing and irreversible momentum toward the complete abolition of the death penalty in this country." Yet, the same ACLU opposes the Right to Life of our first neighbors in the womb. The Organization is one the Nation's strongest advocates of unrestricted abortion on demand for any reason and at any time. 

I oppose the death penalty-always have and always will. It is a part of my deep abiding commitment to holding a consistent ethic of life. However, I understand that some Christians do not share my conviction. I am a Catholic. I embrace what my Church teaches because I believe that it is true. However, let's be clear; Catholic teaching opposing the death penalty is predicated upon a very different moral ground than the Churches absolute opposition to abortion.

Abortion is intrinsically evil - always and everywhere wrong - because it is the taking of innocent, defenseless life. The Catechism makes the vital point: "Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

"Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes." (CCC#22710,2271)

Catholic teaching opposes the death penalty for a very different reason; because it can no longer be justified. The Church opposes this lethal punishment inflicted by the State on presumably guilty parties because bloodless means of punishment are readily available and the common good does not require its use for the protection of the public. In other times in history, and in other circumstances, the Church did not officially oppose the death penalty. However, there has always been a tradition against its use within a stream of Catholic thought.

This contemporary opposition to Capital punishment by the Catholic Church is affirmed in the Catholic Catechism: "Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

"If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity with the dignity of the human person" (CCC, n. 2267).

The Catechism was amended to emphasize that the continued use of capital punishment adds to the growth of what Blessed John Paul II labeled the "Culture of Death." Calling abortion the "cutting edge" of the "Culture of Death" the late Pope drew a connection with the contemporary use of executions warning the State that in implementing their role of applying justice:
 
"the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought  not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare if not practically non-existent" ("The Gospel of Life," n. 56).

I also oppose the death penalty for other very practical reasons. As a former prosecutor, I believe there are many reasons to justify its elimination from both Federal and State criminal justice systems. For example; our history as a Nation demonstrates a disparate application in its use. Further, the advance of the science of DNA continues to prove that we have made mistakes and convicted innocent people. We then executed them. That should raise a serious outcry! There is a growing discomfort with the death penalty in America and it crosses all political lines. It is justified.

Capital Punishment is an issue where the contemporary political labels have most assuredly lost what little value they might have ever had. Sadly, in an effort to lower the crime rate - unsupported by the statistics concerning whether capital punishment has had any effect in lowering crime - both Democrats and Republicans seem to favor capital punishment these days.

It is vital for Pro-Life people to be able to explain their position on both Life issues, abortion and capital punishment. As the Editor in Chief of Catholic Online I regularly receive letters from ill informed Catholics attempting to argue that abortion and capital punishment are the same moral issue. They are not equivalent. The Church has not and does not teach that Capital Punishment is intrinsically evil. However, she clearly teaches that every procured abortion is intrinsically evil.

The recent recovery of conscience by Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon would be more impressive to someone like me who opposes both abortion and capital punishment if he also placed a moratorium on the execution of innocent children in the womb. It is time to end the execution of children in the womb through Abortion and adults by Capital Punishment. It is time to build a new culture of life.

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