Death penalty kills guilty life, abortion kills innocents..Pro believes in death penalty not abortio

Hi! Thanks for the challenge. This is my first debate, and I accepted mostly because I'd simply like to respond to your question. I was not going to accept your challenge at first because in theory I don't actually "disagree" with your stance in the title of this debate. However, your question is a good one and I'd like to at least explain my thought process for the answers to the questions in my profile (which is, I assume, where you found that I "agree" with abortion yet "disagree" with the death penalty) For me, factors for which I base my decisions surrounding my choice not to support the death penalty are very different from those on which I base my decision to be pro-choice. I'll begin by explaining my stance on each and why I reached those conclusions. DEATH PENALTY: 1. When it comes to the death penalty, first and foremost it quite simply doesn't sit well with me. Having the power to kill people for doing the same thing to someone else strikes me as an odd way of teaching a lesson. Maybe you've read the quote "why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?" It's a little silly, but it makes its point. My personal opinion is that no one should be murdered or killed. For me, I feel that if I agreed to let these convicted murders be put to death, that would be condoning the exact thing that I find wrong about them. I'm not interested in the idea of anyone killing anyone, no matter who it is. (I know people are going to find this hypocritical when it comes to abortion, but just hold tight, I'll address that when I get to it) 2. Now obviously just because I don't want to kill these people doesn't mean I want them to be free. But thats exactly why we have prisons. Probably the biggest reason I am against the death sentence is that I think it's unnecessary. Has anything come out of a death sentence that is better than them just serving a life sentence? Taking away their right to breathe and live is a whole other step up from taking away their right to be free in society by keeping them in a prison cell for the rest of their life, and I don't think that the satisfaction that the families of those murdered feel is enough. I'm not interested in the idea of making people "feel better" by killing someone. 3. Lastly, the death penalty does NOT only put to death or sentence convicted murderers. There have been many innocent men/women on death row who have been released after new evidence has been revealed, or after someone else has confessed. One statistic states that 69 people have been released from Death Row since 1973 (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org...). This is something that bothers me. Beyond the fact that I don't agree with the fundamental idea of it, it's not going to be 100% accurate?? And what if someone actually dies on death row who was innocent? (and I'm sure they have, I just haven't researched it) Should the lawyers and judges be thrown in jail for murder after they wrongly sentence someone to the Death Penalty? The cycle could just go on and on. ABORTION: 1. You say that you assume I'll bring up something in my argument here about when life begins. This is actually where you're wrong, and why I was hesitating to accept this debate. I don't actually have a strong opinion on "when life begins", and I could find decent arguments to justify either side of the argument. The fact is that this depends on your definition of life, which is really subjective for many people. As you mentioned, yours take on life is that it is from conception, when a sperm fertilizes egg. It could be argued that "life" begins at birth, this would be the breathing life of a person who is a singular part of this world and society. It could also be argued that a life "potential" occurs even earlier, at any instance of unprotected sex. This, to be honest, is a point that I'm not prepared to argue, nor interested in defending because I don't feel either argument is strong enough for me. Does "life" begin at conception? Yes, I believe it does, and science proves that. However, is a fetus a HUMAN LIFE yet? No, it is not. It is a "potential" human being. This for me presents a quandary that I don't feel I need to address to decide my stance on abortion. 2. When I chose "agree" as my stance on abortion, I meant this in reference to the idea of whether abortion should be legal or not. Do I "agree" with the idea of abortion in general? No I do not. This is where I'll go back to my views on life/death and killing. As I stated before, I don't believe that ANYONE (if you believe that life begins at conception then this includes unborn fetus' as well) should die unfairly. If only it were as simple as "how can you not support the death penalty when you support killing babies?"... but it's not. Since we are also talking about PREGNANCY, which includes physical changes, emotional changes, life changes and huge decisions for a woman in every way, which includes controversy over the definition of when a human life begins, which includes exceptions like pregnancies from rape or defective birth control methods, which only applies to ONE GENDER in a scenario that the other gender cannot even begin to conceive of (no pun intended).... I cannot in good conscience begin to fathom establishing a LAW that would FORCE a woman to be pregnant. I am always deeply saddened by the idea that abortion happens, saddened for the unborn child as well as for the mother who had to go through the process of making such a painful choice. But does this mean that a LAW is justified? In my mind, it is not. Does that make sense? I hope I was able to make clearer the choice that I made on the "agree"/"disagree" points in my profile. I never know why there's only two options for things like that... for things that matter it always ends up being so much more complicated. Thanks again for inviting me to debate! Looking forward to your response.