Apparent Inconsistency - Pro-Life position and Capital Punishment


I hear so much about the apparent inconsistency of the Pro-lifers supporting capital punishment, yet also supporting the right to life for unborn children. Could this be a misunderstanding by the Pro-Choice group? Here is my humble attempt to clear up this confusion.

First of all, I would like to define some of the common terms we all use.

Murder – Killing an innocent human being for your own convenience
Capital punishment – One of the methods of punishment a state chooses for criminals who have committed heinous crimes.
Killing - Taking the life of a human being

Here is the most often used argument by the Pro-Choice group:

It is inconsistent to be a pro-lifer and also support capital punishment because by supporting capital punishment, you are NOT supporting life.

On the surface level, this appears to be inconsistent. Let us look at it closely. What is the Pro-Life position? It is that human beings have intrinsic value and should be considered valuable, and therefore, murder is ALWAYS wrong.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is: Is capital punishment murder?

Capital punishment is definitely not murder due to the following reasons:
1.      The person being killed is not an innocent person
2.      it’s not done for convenience

As you can see, it’s abundantly clear that capital punishment is NOT murder; hence there is no conflict with the Pro-Life position.

One question remaining is this – If human life has intrinsic worth, then how can the state kill a convicted criminal? Even the convicted criminal has intrinsic human worth.
This is a very valid question and here is what I think is the answer- Not all killings are murder.

Many people are initially agitated by this statement, but I have no doubt that every human being abides by this statement. If anyone denies this statement, they are not living in reality. Think about a cop killing a robber who tried to snatch your child from you. The cop tried to save your child’s life and in that process he ended up killing the robber, who has intrinsic value. You wouldn’t call that cop a murderer.  Similarly, if your country is attacked by another country, it will defend itself, and in that process many people will get killed. That is not murder. In both of these cases, killing was necessary in spite of the fact that the robber as well as the soldiers possessed intrinsic human worth.

So the folks who deny this statement (Not all killings are murder) SHOULD also deny the police and the military. But I haven’t seen any human beings say that we shouldn’t have cops or the military!

Therefore, as we can see, capital punishment is certainly a form of killing, but it is not murder.

There are some interesting facts that you NEVER hear from the Pro-choice group.

The total number of deaths by capital punishment since 1976 in the US – 1226
The total number of babies murdered in the US since 1973 – 54 Million

You can clearly see what is hidden in all these allegations by the Pro-Choice group. The powerful abortion lobby in this country uses several smokescreens to deter people’s focus. This is one of their secret weapons. Their goal is to prevent people from seeking the truth because truth really hurts their livelihood (abortion clinics).


So if we are accusing the Pro-Lifers of inconsistency for supporting capital punishment, then we must insist that Pro-Lifers are inconsistent when they support the cop who killed the robber who tried to snatch our children! I know none of us are willing to do that. So why are we showing a double standard here?

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