צ More on Body Parts From Abortion: The Death Penalty. On New Year's Day I suggested requiring women who have abortions to view the remains of the fetus, as a way of making sure they take responsibility for what they have done. A reader objection made me think about applying this to the death penalty too. She writes,

I'm afraid what you suggest about women viewing the body parts after an abortion is totally punitive and unmerciful. Your view makes me change my opinion about what some evangelical Christians' motives really are. I believe abortion is abhorrent, but what is the underlying cause of most of the abortions? Men or parents pushing the unwed mother-to-be to have an abortion because they don't want to be bothered by being burdened with a child.
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Really, the law should be changed by the people in the know, who know what a horrid procedure abortions are, rather than inflicting all punishment on a woman, that men as the controllers of society have forced on these poor, unsuspecting women.

Actually, this idea appealed to me as an economist more than as a Christian. As an economist, I see many bad things done because people have poor information, things which people would not do if they understood the consequences of their actions. A piece of advice that economists often give for policy is:

DON'T REGULATE: INFORM!

In other words, often the government best helps not by making the decision for a person and punishing him if he tries to change the decision, but by giving the person the information he needs to make the decision that is best.

Here, the person making the decision about abortion is the pregnant woman--- not the man who made her pregnant. If it were the man-- as was perhaps the case in Rome, where the conventional wisdom is that the father could order the death even of a ten-year-old son-- then it should be the man who views the results of the procedure. But in America, as I understand it, we put the power entirely in the hands of the woman, and her husband and father have no say, even if she is a minor (this, by the way, hints that husbands and fathers don't control our society, doesn't it?) To be sure, various men (and women) may pressure the pregnant woman to have an abortion, but it would perhaps deter them, too, if the woman could say to them,"OK, but if I do it, you have to view the body parts too).

Somehow (for the email had no mention of it), in thinking about this I wondered whether there might not be other applications of the idea such as to the death penalty. Currently in America, I think only jurors can authorize the death penalty, though judges can block it. Would it be a good idea to require any jury that authorizes the death penalty to view the execution?

Maybe. The principle is the same-- the jurors should be made conscious of the gravity of their decision (or, at any rate, made to think hard about whether it is a grave decision--- as with abortion, it may be that after reflection, the decisionmaker would decide it's no big deal). The big difference is that the jurors *are* required by law to reflect on their decision--- they must sit through a lengthy presentation by the defense attorney, and if they don't seem to be paying attention, their decision can be voided by a judge. So the prospect of attending the execution might not add much. To make the abortion situation equivalent, we would have to require the pregnant woman to sit through a couple of hours of give-and-take between pro- and anti- abortion advocates. That, too, might make sense.

http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/04.01.02c.htm . erasmusen@yahoo.com. ]

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