What is “human life?”
Well, you might want to hold off on killing anything, until you figure that out.
[I do adore dark humor]
You tell me. I can give you an example of a clear distinction of when something changes from most definitely not being human life to being human life. Can you give me an example of any time other than conception that this happens?
The good reasons for being both “pro choice and anti-death penalty” have already been given and I am one to agree with those.
Right now, my own reason, which covers both issues, is that I don’t consider the government (any government) to be a benign entity. History and current events alike show that the concern of the government doesn’t lie in looking out for the best interest of the people, but that instead citizens are considered an entertaining source of tax-money (or at least sometimes I get that impression), so that the “state” and the ones in charge can merrily go by whatever it is they are doing.
In that cynical light, I prefer the government’s competences to be cut, instead of increased. Allowing a state to decide who lives or dies, means handing over a big chunk of rights; hence I am against capital punishment and against forcing people to carry out unwanted pregnancies.
This is of course debatable, and the debate is quite old. But a fertilized egg has all the DNA that a human has, and it is alive. I’m sure that’s not enough proof for you. But it is for me.
Birth shouldn’t be considered the point at which a being is considered to be a human because there is VERY little developmental distinction between a child at 8 months 3 weeks and a child at 9 months. If you give birth to a child a week early he is most probably not going to be any less healthy than a child born on time. So you could induce birth early (and some people do) and not risk the child at all. What would have the child have been had it not been born early? The date on the birth certificate and the date on your tombstone are old fashioned arbitrary legal devices. I don’t see it ever changing, but science is quickly making (some of) us realize that a child inside the womb is a living human being.