Pro-Life and Pro-Capital Punishment

There is an alleged inconsistency that is sometimes raised between being pro-life and also pro-capital punishment. Here’s the question: “Is it inconsistent to be pro-life when it comes to the issue of abortion and yet also support capital punishment in certain situations?”

Answer: No.

Here are some important points to remember (see Francis Beckwith and his book Defending Life, pages 126-127, on this topic):

First, the alleged inconsistency of pro-life apologists who support capital punishment is often introduced as a red herring to distract from the main issue that must be addressed. Even IF pro-lifers were inconsistent on this point, that’s all it would prove: an inconsistency. And what follows from that? Not much. It has nothing to do with the one question that must be answered in the abortion debate: “What is the unborn?” As Beckwith notes, “inconsistent people can draw good conclusions” (Defending Life, 126). 

Second, remember the pro-life syllogism:

P1: It is wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being.

P2: Elective abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being.

C:  Therefore, elective abortion is wrong.

How is supporting capital punishment inconsistent with this syllogism? It isn’t. Capital punishment kills a guilty human being found guilty of a capital crime, not an innocent, vulnerable, and defenseless human being inside the womb. This is a big difference and there is no reasonable analogy or moral equivalence between the two. Beckwith states, “Pro-life advocates, for the most part, do not argue that killing is never justified, for there are instances in which killing is justified, such as in the cases  of self-defense and capital punishment, both of which do not entail the killing of an innocent human life” (Defending Life, 127).

Third, if being pro-life and pro-capital punishment is inconsistent, isn’t being pro-choice and against capital punishment equally inconsistent? In other words, if A and B are inconsistent, then not-A and not-B are likewise inconsistent. But I’ve never heard pro-abortion choice advocates bring up this point. And if this is true, why even bring it up at all?

Finally, there are in fact some pro-life advocates who are against capital punishment, and therefore the claim of inconsistency vanishes with regard to these individuals. If the pro-abortion choice advocate is so concerned with consistency, “Why does he not then give up his abortion-choice position and embrace this pro-life position, as it should seem to him even more consistent than the anti-capital punishment abortion-choice position?” (Defending Life, 126).

In short, pro-life advocates who support capital punishment (which is the position I hold) are pro-innocent life, and therefore there is no inconsistency between protecting innocent, vulnerable, and defenseless human life in the womb and at the same time supporting the taking of guilty human life in certain situations.

This should be especially obvious for Christians who can clearly see in Scripture God’s view of the sanctity of human life and the command for capital punishment in the very same verse: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6).