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For many sincere, devoutly religious Americans, a microscopic, mindless amalgam of cells is not a person,
But it is biologically never an "amalgam of cells" and always biologically a human being. The word "person" is complex. In a most simple way is a person a kind of mask of an actor, which we carry, when we play the game "to live together".
nor is surrendering dominion over all impregnated wombs to government politicians and bureaucrats the ethical solution.
What for heavens sake is an ethical solution? Abortion is no solution at all for any problem, which the aborted human being never will have. Abortion means to steal from every aborted human being a whole lifespan.
Personal morality is not achieved through State coercion.
Eh? I have not any idea what you like to say with this sentence. The feeling for justice is often not represented from laws. Nevertheless we need laws. We all have to take care that justice and laws not will become strangers.
It is odd that those most contemptuous of governmental competence and averse to government intervention are so eager to surrender dominion in such matters of life and death - capital punishment included - to the State.
From my point of view capital punishment often was once used to protect others from future crimes - specially of mad and sick murderers. So it was often a kind of preemptive self-defense. That was the only positive aspect. But today we have much more possibilites to help and much more safe prisons. So capital punishment is obsolete today. And in all times capital punishment also had been sometimes judical errors or had been sometimes even crimes on their own.