Tea at Trianon: Personhood and the Death Penalty

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, May 14, 2012

Personhood and the Death Penalty

Some wise reflections from Katie Walker.

First of all, the most important difference between the pro-life/personhood movement and the anti-death penalty movement is that preborn children, euthanasia victims, disabled, handicapped etc. are denied their rights because they are considered by society as less equal, as less human, lesser non-persons, because of their age, mental or physical condition or residence.

All these things are situations which they CANNOT alter.

Condemned people on death row are also stripped of their right to life, but NOT because they are considered intrinsically less human, lesser persons. They are stripped of their rights based on the social contract which says that certain crimes demand certain payment to society. Those who receive the death penalty are stripped of their right to life because of a situation which they COULD have altered – the crime they committed. Preborn children have no rights. They are not recognized as persons under the law. Condemned criminals are recognized as persons and accordingly receive due process of the law. (Read entire post.)