1987_01 The Daily Collegian January 1987

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 • I ""■}
. Tuesday, Jan. 27,1987,
Page 2
Death penalty needs aborting
It seems there are a lot ot people who
support the death penalty but oppose
abortion. This seems to be a hypocritical
thing because those who oppose abortion
argue their point on the grounds that a
human life should not be taken. A couple of
friends of mine and I mulled over that
subject the other day.
It began with a comment by my friend,
I'll call Alex, who did anything but hide his
joy because of the beginning of a new era
for the state Supreme court. He said he was
thrilled that ex-Chief Justice Rose Bird and
her liberal "cronies" Cruz Reynoso and
Stanley Mosk were removed from the court
by die state's voters.
He said the voters were obviously tired of
letting murderers get off "without their due
Neither I nor my'other friend. Bill, said
anything to him. Alex likes to talk, but he
likes to hear himself talk even more.
"Some people have to know that they
will have to pay the price if they are going
to do something as abhorrent as to take
' another human being's life, " he said.
"But what about the people who take the
murderers' life?" Bill snapped back.
At this point I knew a good argument
was going to happen because Bill and Alex
often disagree. I do not know if it is because
they like to argue or because they really do
disagree, but their arguments are always
interesting because neither one likes to back
down.
"What about them?"
"Well" said Bill, "it seems that if the
murderer is punished for taking a human life
by having his life taken, then someone will
have to take his life Right?"
"Right."
■ "What happens to that person?"
"Nothing happens to that person," said
Alex, "because that person will be doing his
job."
"Then you're saying that it's all right for
the person who is doing his job to kill the
murderer because that's what he's paid for?
"But what about the morality of taking
another human being's life?"
Alex figured out what Bill was trying to
get at and quickly said, "You're not going to
give me that sanctity of life speech again are
Reader
Response
to Daily Collegian articles and opinions are
welcome. Send letters no longer than 250
words in length to Daily Collegian, Keats
Campus Bldg.. CSUF Fresno. CA 93740.
Letters must be signed and include the
writer's name, address and telephone number.
Adviser questioned
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the article
"CSUF students switch schools," which mh
in The Dailly Collegian Dec. IS. I am ver/
unhappy with the responses that were given
by S a bin a Jacques who  is the program
coordinator   at   CSUF   for   the   National
Students Exchange Program.        '   *
In the article, students commented on
how the program has had a lack of
organization. Students travel from all across
the United States to attend several of our
state schools in California. The impression
they  have  gotten  from  Fresno  and  the
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you? Ill admit that it is terrible that society
has to go to such a measures as take another
person's life, but it is necessary to prevent
the murderer from killing more people. So
you're not simply killing one person, but
you're saving the lives of others."
Bill grinned and said, "If you can justify
killing a human being, how can you oppose
abortion in all instances?"
"Those are two different things," Alex
said.
"But aren't the arguments against each
similar? The arguments against the death
penalty and against abortion are both based
on the immorality of the taking of a human
life, in all instances. But many people like
you who oppose abortion because a human
being is killed turn around arid justify
taking a murderer's life for the good of
society. You say that it is never moral to
abort a fetus but iris all right to take a
person's life in certain cases. Which is it?"
Alex responded very casually, "Which is
what?"
"Which is the proper way to look at the
taking of a human life?" Bill asked." Is it
always wrong, which would mean that both
abortion ai ,d the death penalty are immoral.
The other option is saying the death penalty
and abortion are all right in certain
instances, which means one can justify the
death of a human being.
"If you value human life, then you value
it in all instances, period"
"But you're not looking at the lives that
the murderer may have taken if he was
allowed back into society," Alex said. 'Their
• lives are saved because the murderer won't
kill them."
"But you can use that same argument for
abortion. Too often in dealing with the
subject of abortion, people focus on the
fetus argument. They only look at the life of
the fetus as I did when I was arguing about
the murderers life. You pointed out that
when the murderer is killed, it isn't so much
as taking his life as saving the life of his
potential victims. The same argument
applies here. If the fetus is taken to full
term, what is the potential effect on the life
of the mother, the father or their friends and
families?
'I'll admit that too often abortion is
simply used as birth control for those who
find it inconvenient to have a baby, but in
many cases the economic and emotional
effects will be much worse than if the fetus
were aborted,   f.
"Also, there are other ways of removing
the murderer from society. You can keep
him in jail or try to rehabilitate him."
Alex interrunted, "But society has to pay
him." '
"Yes, but that's the easy way out If we
. as a society claim to have high
moral values we should make the attempt
See ABORT, page 8
national coordinator at this school has not
left a good picture.
Many of the students leaving at the
semester will leave with an unpleasant
attitude about Fresno.  ,
Jacques, in my opinion, has put little if
any effort into her job. She stated, "You do
what you can do, and I don't feel it's my
responsibility." From my point of view, I
feel she does not have the time to give it her
all due to the fact that she holds another job.
Jacques also stated that the program itself
needs three to four years to become
successful. How can one say that after
being coordinator in Oregon from the same
program for 10 years? You would think
from 10 years experience she would have her
act together.
In conclusion, I feel that we as a CSU
school should make students from other
states more accepted and have a more
organized program for them.
Teresa Lehon
Program explained
Dear Editor.
We are writing in response to the article
"CSUF students switch schools," which was
in The Daily Collegian Dec. 15. The article
dealt with the National Student Exchange
Program here at CSUF. We would like to
set our views straight not only  to  our
See RESPONSE, pag«\ 5
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