THANK you Bishop Christopher Saunders for your comments regarding the execution of Saddam Hussein (Have Your Say, CL 14/1/07).
I agree totally, without a moment’s hesitation.
It is not that his crimes deserve leniency, but I think that in the death penalty, there is much contradiction, especially for those who profess a Catholic/Christian belief in God.
How can we fight for the life of zygote, a four-week embryo, an eight-week foetus (which cannot even be seen or felt), and at the same time condone the death penalty? Even that of Saddam Hussein.
What I believe we fight for in a zygote, four-week embryo, is the “Imago Dei” – the life principle, that thing called “Life” whose author/giver is God, and not what has been done with the decisions made in that person’s of life.
We must fight for “life” itself.
If we can say that one person’s life is worth legally killing, then that famous “slippery slope” has steepened more so.
I don’t argue about the crimes which Saddam Hussein has committed.
They are known and by human reckoning he got what he deserved.
But this is human reckoning, which also says that in utero infants up to 40 weeks may be “legally” killed because the mother/father wants it so. Human reckoning is flawed by sin.
If I remember correctly, the fifth commandment doesn’t say “Thou shalt not kill” – except Sadam Hussein, etc.
Genesis 8:6 is unambiguous in its wording, “He who sheds man’s blood, shall have his blood shed by man, for in the image of God man was made”.
Life is either the domain of God, or we have attempted to wrest that from Him to our peril.
I would further add that in a media shot of Saddam Hussein just prior to his hanging, and with a noose around his neck, I saw a terror in his eyes.
That for me showed that, in the last seconds, his humanity was evident.
It is that life, that humanity, which we must look to protect.
That he committed evil crimes/acts is unquestioned, that he was in the last seconds of his life, human, is also for me unquestioned.
ANNE LASTMAN
Victims of Abortion
Melbourne, Vic
