Kristoffer's thoughts - Live and let Live
(2001-02-05 - Updated 2002-02-25)

Last week I read that Oklahama, USA, had beaten a new record. They had executed more citizens than any other state. 7 people in January alone. Texas used to have the record.
And after reading that the new president is very unlikely to do anything to better the situation I got annoyed. And then I read about the new Attorney General and it looks like they are more likely to increase the number of executions if anything. And that got me ticked off!

I am very pro-life when it comes to death penalty. I don't think any country or government should have the right to execute it's own citizens! It's barbaric, cruel and uncivilized!
What's the point? I don't get it. As far as I know, USA is the only country in the western world that still executes their own citizens left and right. What makes them so special? All the nonsense about overpopulation in the prisons cannot justify killing the prisoners, that will only get rid of a problem, but it's not a solution. Why is american prisons that more overcrowded than any other countries? And the argument that it's more resource-effective is just about the most uncivilized thing I've heard!
The "eye for an eye" thing is also pretty rediculous, we (as in "the western world", USA included) seem to protest everytime any Islamic country uses the "eye for an eye" penalty system and mutulates theifs, but it's OK for USA to kill killers, and thereby getting their own hands bloody?
And does the victim's family feel any better about it?... frankly, I don't know about that, perhaps they do, but I would feel better if I was rich, but that doesn't make it so. The right to live should supersede the right for vengeance.
But the biggest argument against it I can think of is that not everyone who is convicted of a murder is actually guilty! There have been several hundred cases in the past years that it has been proven, sometimes too late, that the bad guy was innocent. I don't know about you, but one of my worst imaginable ways to leave this life is to be executed for something I didn't do!

So I think every American citizen should think it over, and hopefully realise it wasn't such a good idea. For more info and specific numbers, check out Amnesty's site.

Another "right to live" thing that I fear might take a nasty turn with the new president is the abortion issue. In this regard, I am not pro-life, rather pro-choice. I think it's up to every woman to decide if she is ready, capable and wants to become a mother. Some may say "ofcourse they can, just don't have sex or use a condom".
Sure, that's true when it comes to consentual sex. But with the rape-rate (no pun intended) today, one cannot use that as an absolute rule. Also, it's a bit sexist to say that we guys can screw around, and so can women but if they get pregnant they can't get an abortion.
The discussion about "sentient life is sacred" leads directly to the question "when does a life become sentient". Is a fedes sentient? I have no idea, that's up for the medical, psychological och philosophical department to figure out. But I'll put it this way: If a fedes is intelligent and sentient, why does it come out when the environment in the womb is far better than the one out here...

So I'm pro-life in the execution debate, but pro-choice in the abortion debate.
Again, call me hypocritical if you want, but that doesn't change they way I feel.

/ Kristoffer Strom