The convergence of Governor Ryan's evacuation of death row in Illinois (see Post Register, Jan. 12) and the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade (handed down January 22, 1973) renews consideration of what kind of culture we embrace: a culture of life or a culture of death? If abortion on demand grinds on with the mundane regularity which has characterized it for the past 3 decades, and if the use of the death penalty is eroded at its present pace, then we as a culture are tripping merrily along a primrose path toward self annihilation. Is this alarmist and sensational? Not according to the professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University, Robert P. George, who recognizes that we can no longer ignore "the body count," as he calls it, of the accumulation of deaths of innocents from abortion, partial birth abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and physician assisted suicide. Throughout history, according to George, all such practices evidence a society's descent into a vile paganism and ultimate self-destruction. How does one characterize such a culture? "A pagan culture is always, in the end, a culture of death," says professor George.

Additionally, a culture of death inevitably celebrates and affirms death in all its manifestations, including murder. This is exactly why an anti-death penalty stance is consistent with a pro-choice position. Both positions affirm and practice death. How can we say this when, ostensibly, it is the life - as a life - of the murderer which is affirmed? Precisely because that for which the murderer stands - death, violent and illicit - is affirmed implicitly. A person's acts and character cannot be abstracted from his "life" as life: he is the sum total of these things. To affirm the life is to affirm the person and his legacy, a legacy of death in the case of the murderer.

Further, if the pro-choicer truly affirmed life as life, the stand on abortion would collapse. What is the status of the unborn child? Innocent! There is no one more deserving of the benefit of the doubt of life than a child. What is the status of the convicted murderer? Guilty! There is no one more deserving of the exacting of justice than the murderer. It is necessary to keep in view the actions and moral status of each class of person: the child, who is morally culpable for nothing, and the murderer, whose punishment must be commensurate with his crime. This is why society throughout history has reserved the right to demand the life of the criminal in just payment for the life of the victim - not to reform, not to deter, not for vindictive satisfaction, but merely because it is just.

It must also be kept in mind that the pro-choice and pro-life positions both affirm life in the death penalty debate: pro-lifers affirm the life of the victim; pro-choicers affirm the life of the murderer. Pro-lifers affirm the life of the victim by exacting justice commensurate with the crime: life for life. When true justice demands nothing less, life is affirmed. Pro-choicers affirm the life of the murderer by exacting far less than justice demands, preferring his life over that of the victim. When a false mercy prevails, at the clear expense of justice, death is affirmed.

In the end, the consequences of our positions will bear on our destiny as a people. No choice of such magnitude, involving both the beginning (in the case of abortion) and end of life (in the case of the death penalty) is a "private choice" alone. As the author RJ Rushdoony puts it, "The essence of the demand for abortion is to return to pagan statism, to place life again under the state rather than under God. The implications of abortion concern more than the fetus; they involve every living man." The implication today is that our culture of death will spell the death of our culture.

BACK TO TOP