The objection to all of the lengthy appeals wasn't that they might get an innocent guy off the hook, but that they were prolonging justice at great cost. If genetic testing can cut through the bull and deliver the goods, great. Indeed, I'm still trying to figure out why genetic testing isn't a boon to capital-punishment supporters. But even I don't go as far as my friend Will. We know that a lot more people getting driver's licenses this year will die than people on death row, and the drivers as a group are surely more innocent than the criminals.
Life's just too complex.
Ultimately, the problem with Saletan's position isn't that it is anarchist but that it's too political. It assumes that consensus on any moral question is better than disputation. It's about humility. As some might guess from my phrasing in this article, I am not a spokesperson for the pro-life cause. Still, it seems to me, the argument that abortion is like slavery is not easily dismissed.