Replies

"I'm just playing devils advocate right now so don't destroy me and don't take this as a personal attack ;)"

I promise not to do either. :)

"You seem to be okay with the government deciding who lives and dies"

Well, kind of. That is, I believe the government has the right to take life for two reasons: in defense of its citizens, waging war against nations and terrorists who mean to kill Americans, and as a matter of justice. I don't buy anti-death penalty talk about executing the murderer not making the murder right. The government doesn't punish murder to make anything right. It punishes murder to administer justice. It is perfectly fair (and completely fitting) for the government to say to a killer, "You took the life of a human being; therefore, we take your life. Blindfold?"

"but not okay with [the government deciding] who can have children or not"

No, I'm not. That's not the government's place--and the judiciary, especially, should not be issuing orders to sterilize someone. People have a right to reproduce. They do not have a right to kill or abuse their offspring. Can't the government punish them for the latter without taking away the former?

"I see a big difference between telling everyone you can only have x amount of y children vs telling someone convicted of murder you can't have any more children."

Agreed, there is a huge difference. My solution, however, is: Execute people convicted of murder. That solves the problem, without the government getting into the habit of sterilizing people.

Ahh good reply. I like this part
No, I'm not. That's not the government's place--and the judiciary, especially, should not be issuing orders to sterilize someone. People have a right to reproduce. They do not have a right to kill or abuse their offspring. Can't the government punish them for the latter without taking away the former?

that's a good way of putting it. I still think its a shaky line between the government deciding the just penalty is death and them saying changing it to sterilization. But i don't agree that sterilization is a "just" penalty. I guess i was more a fan of the humiliation factor. Just because a child killer can't make her own kids to kill, doesn't mean that we don't have a child killer running around Atlanta