Washington D.C., Dec 4, 2005 / 22:00 pm
While millions of Americans are rightly lobbying for an end to the death penalty, which has sanctioned the execution of 1,000 people since 1976, what ought to be done regarding abortion, which has taken an average of 1,000 lives every seven hours since Roe v. Wade? Ethicist Nikolas Nikas, Esq., asked this provocative question in an opinion piece in last week’s National Review Online.
The president and general counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund noted that the 1,000th sanctioned execution took place in the U.S. Dec. 2, “despite the opposition of tens of millions of American citizens.” The public interest legal organization advocates for human rights on the issues of cloning and embryonic stem-cell research, abortion and assisted suicide.
Nikas said executions have taken place in the U.S. since the 1976 Supreme Court decision that sanctioned the death penalty “despite the overwhelming evidence …, establishing beyond a reasonable doubt that such acts, immoral to the core, only serve to corrupt civil society and do nothing to solve the nation's most pressing social concerns.”
He noted, however, that this same number is reached several times every day when it comes to abortion. About 1.3 million babies are aborted each year in the U.S., which is about 3,500 each day, he said.
“If averaged out over a 24-hour period, the 1,000th victim of abortion occurs approximately every seven hours of every day, 365 times a year!” he stated. “Every hour, approximately 146 unborn boys and girls are deprived of the most basic of all human rights: the right to exist.”
“So, if 1,000 dead from capital punishment since 1976 deserves to be marked, what should we as a society do to mark the approximately 37,000,000 dead from abortion in that same period?” Nikas asks, inviting readers to ponder the issue. “If capital punishment should be abolished for ending the life of 1,000 human beings, then what should we do with the practice of human abortion that kills millions?”