
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990                   TAG: 9007260488
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALSO MAKE ABORTIONS REQUIRED VIEWING

I RECENTLY attended a conference where a speaker said that many who are pro-abortion are against capital punishment. As I pondered that, I came across Paxton Davis' article June 15 on capital punishment. He said, "Self-styled `pro-life' advocates rarely extend their sympathy for the unborn to the condemned."

Is it true that pro-life advocates support capital punishment and pro-abortion advocates would ban capital punishment? Would many pro-abortion advocates take the lives of the innocent, yet protect the murderers who are condemned to death? It seems to be so.

Davis' sensibilities are disturbed by the "barbarous practice" of executions: " . . . most people are likely to turn their head in revulsion at the prospect of viewing the grisly deed." Abortion is also a "grisly deed." Few people would enjoy watching a nurse reassemble body parts from an aborted baby.

Davis feels that "Citizens who demand capital punishment ought, at the very least, to see what they're doing. And should be required to do so." Let us require all pro-abortion advocates to witness a day's work at the nearest abortion clinic. They, too, should know what they're doing!

I abhor the killing of innocent babies. I cannot watch a movie about the atrocities of the Holocaust without thinking of the human garbage discarded daily at abortion clinics.

I would derive no pleasure from watching an execution take place. But justice, not revenge, is served when the laws protecting life are not scorned and murderers are not set free to kill again.

\ KATHY HALL\ COPPER HILL

by CNB