Originally Posted by joshbaumgartner

It has been explained to me by anti-choice/pro-death penalty folks that the rationale for this is that the death penalty is executed under the authority of government and law, and not by individuals based on personal desires, while abortion gives individual citizens the right to hold power of life and death over a fetus, which they claim to see as a person on par with any born person. The idea is that killing is not okay done by individuals, but is okay when done by the government (within the law).

Personally, I see the government, particularly in a democracy, as an extension of its citizens. Thus I see this reasoning as a form of collective evasion of responsibility. Thus I can't condone this approach to the problem.