Philly Abortion Doctor Gosnell May Face Death

[catharina]

foxnews.com/us/2011/02/04/philly-abortion-doctor-gosnell-face-death/

Prosecutors in Philadelphia are debating if they want to seek the death penalty in the case of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell.

…

Prosecutors also disclosed after the hearing that they could have charged Gosnell with a “hundred murders.”

While I have no use for the death penalty since it's
usually unnecessary to assure public safety, it's 
striking to see that it's being considered in this case.

 

[Kirk_O]

Thats a hard one. My first thought is yea but wouldn’t that be just as wrong? The only good would be the publicity it would bring to the abortion issue, but it still has to be wrong. Am I wrong?

 

[Joan1969]

Hi Kirk,

It is one thing to be opposed to the death penalty. However, applying the death penalty would under no circumstances be as wrong as Gosnell’s crimes. The babies and women killed by Gosnell for his private purposes were innocent (babies especially). Gosnell himself would be a mass murderer convicted by law.

Again, I’m not arguing in favor of the death penalty here, just saying it is not eqivalent to cold-blooded killing of the innocent.

God Bless,
Joan

 

[st_lucy]

I think killing this guy is a bad idea, there is no reason that he cannot stay in prison for the rest of his life(as he should).

 

[catholicpublish]

As Catholics we can not in good conscience support the death penalty for anybody. The bible does warn of those who commit crime falling victim to the punishments of men. Do not allow yourself to support the death penalty under any circumstance.

 

[NotCrazyDan]

As Catholics we can not in good conscience support the death penalty for anybody. The bible does warn of those who commit crime falling victim to the punishments of men. Do not allow yourself to support the death penalty under any circumstance.

This is incorrect.

*2267 Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically non-existent.”*

Thus the death penalty is not excluded, especially since a murderer removed from society can still commit murder in prison. In this particular instance, however, the death penalty is probably inappropriate according to Catholic Teaching.

 

[estesbob]

As Catholics we can not in good conscience support the death penalty for anybody. The bible does warn of those who commit crime falling victim to the punishments of men. Do not allow yourself to support the death penalty under any circumstance.

Please lets not derail the thread. I think it would be a tragedy for this man to be given the death penalty. However the Catholic Church does not now nor ever has precluded the use of capital punishment.

 

[pismopal]

The Dr needs some time to come to grips with the enormity of his crimes. He probably is not a danger to staff and inmates so his death is not likely to protect the aforementioned and he will not be able to get his hands on innocent babies any more.

 

[LCMS_No_More]

Please lets not derail the thread. I think it would be a tragedy for this man to be given the death penalty. However the Catholic Church does not now nor ever has precluded the use of capital punishment.

Actually, I am for the death penalty for abortionists and their clients.

 

[LCMS_No_More]

I’m surprised more people aren’t for the death penalty in this case.

Personally, I think a case can be made to execute abortionists AND their clients. Heck, a case can be made for televising these executions. The method would be hanging, drawing and quartering.

 

[canadianguy1143]

I’m surprised more people aren’t for the death penalty in this case.

Personally, I think a case can be made to execute abortionists AND their clients. Heck, a case can be made for televising these executions. The method would be hanging, drawing and quartering.

For somebody who detests the Republican Party you sound like one of its far right members!! Unless of course you are speaking fluent sarcasm?!!

 

[jmcrae]

I am under the impression that the appeals process is so long and intricate that most inmates on death row in the United States die of old age, anyway, long before they are executed.

Ronald Smith was sentenced to be executed in Montana during March of 1983, when he was of the right age to be discerning his life’s work.

His latest execution date was January 31, 2011, which has been overturned in favour of a date in April, which no doubt will be overturned yet again, ad infinitum.

 

[LCMS_No_More]

For somebody who detests the Republican Party you sound like one of its far right members!!

I’m full of surprises.

If we’re talking abortion, then let’s talk abortion, but when it comes to what I perceive Republicanism being about (upward wealth transfers), then I’m opposed.

Unless of course you are speaking fluent sarcasm?!!

Well, maybe about the hanging, drawing and quartering part. No need to draw them, just hang and quarter 'em!

 

[jmcrae]

I privately believe that on the Day of Judgement, those involved in abortion will be required to explain their actions to the actual children they aborted. (I think all murderers will be required to explain what they thought they were doing, to their victims.)

 

[Bob_Crowley]

foxnews.com/us/2011/02/04/philly-abortion-doctor-gosnell-face-death/

Prosecutors in Philadelphia are debating if they want to seek the death penalty in the case of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell.

…

Prosecutors also disclosed after the hearing that they could have charged Gosnell with a “hundred murders.”

While I have no use for the death penalty since it's
usually unnecessary to assure public safety, it's 
striking to see that it's being considered in this case.

The death penalty of itself is not unjust. If someone cold bloodedly and callously took your life, why should he keep his own?

The main argument against the death penalty is that innocent people are sometimes executed, and once a person is dead, it’s too late.

We have a mass murderer in a NSW jail who murdered several back packers. Recently a nephew of his was charged with the murder of a teenage friend. When Milat found out about it, he allegedly laughed.

Yet apparently it costs $824 a day to keep Milat alive, four times as much as his less violent offenders, according to the following article.

dailytelegraph.com.au/news/a-day-to-keep-milat-in-jail/story-e6freuy9-1111118728516

What, precisely, does keeping Ivan Milat alive achieve?

The death penalty is not unjust. But it is abused, and even in democratic societies, innocent people sometimes are executed. That’s about the only real reason not to have the death penalty. If the abortion doctor were to be executed, it would really be no more than he deserves.

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

I think killing this guy is a bad idea, there is no reason that he cannot stay in prison for the rest of his life(as he should).

I personally support the death penalty for extreme cases where prison isn’t a viable option to protect innocent lives, especially with an innocent prison guard recently murdered close to home.

But I think this man need to sit and rot and spend time thinking about what he has done.

 

[JW10631]

The death penalty has not been carried out in Pennsylvania for several decades.

My own opinion is that this man deserves the death penalty should he be convicted and sentenced with the death penalty.

What will be interesting to watch during the upcoming trial are the abortionists. another interesting thing to watch for are the actions and words of ex-governors (both abortionists) Tom Ridge and Ed $pendell. They did nothing about these abortion mills.

 

[catharina]

usccb.org/sdwp/national/deathpenalty/holyfather.shtml

from the Bishops:

The Holy Father calls recourse to the death penalty “unnecessary” and painfully reminds us that our “model of society bears the stamp of the culture of death, and is therefore in opposition to the Gospel message.” (Pope John Paul II, World Day of the Sick, Washington, DC, February 2003)

…

Today, given the means at the State’s disposal to deal with crime and control those who commit it, without abandoning all hope of their redemption, the cases where it is absolutely necessary to do away with an offender ‘are now very rare, even non-existent practically’". (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia in America January 1999)

[webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hIu6ztmIxDMJ:www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae_en.html+john+paul+ii,+death+penalty&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hIu6ztmIxDMJ:www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae_en.html+john+paul+ii,+death+penalty&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com)

from the Holy Father John Paul II

**Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Evangelium vitae**

To the Bishops
Priests and Deacons
Men and Women religious
lay Faithful
and all People of Good Will
on the Value and Inviolability
of Human Life

...

**God drove Cain out of his presence and sent him into exile far away from his native land, so that he passed from a life of human kindness to one which was more akin to the rude existence of a wild beast. God, who preferred the correction rather than the death of a sinner, did not desire that a homicide be punished by the exaction of another act of homicide".**13

...

Among the signs of hope we should also count the spread, at many levels of public opinion, of a new sensitivity ever more opposed to war as an instrument for the resolution of conflicts between peoples, and increasingly oriented to finding effective but "non-violent" means to counter the armed aggressor. **In the same perspective there is evidence of a growing public opposition to the death penalty, even when such a penalty is seen as a kind of "legitimate defence" on the part of society. Modern society in fact has the means of effectively suppressing crime by rendering criminals harmless without definitively denying them the chance to reform".**

So the Holy Father has pointed out that 
the death peanalty is not to be the preferred
punishment of criminal.  In fact, society
can be well-protected without executions.

 

[catharina]

I understand that Catholics disagree re the death penalty.
Yet the latest guidance from the Vatican is that the
death penalty is and extreme practice and rarely “needed.”
The use of it might foreshorten time needed for conversion of a soul.

 

[estesbob]

I understand that Catholics disagree re the death penalty.
Yet the latest guidance from the Vatican is that the
death penalty is and extreme practice and rarely “needed.”
The use of it might foreshorten time needed for conversion of a soul.

I am absolutely opposed to the death penalty. However we had a poster in this thread saying that a Catholic could not in good conscience support the death penalty and that is simply not true.

Just as a reminder for those Catholics who may be confused about this here is Pope Benedict XVI stated:

There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.