Against capital punishmentWhat is the true value of a human life and how can it be exchanged for another? Isn't it said repeatedly in religion and government that every life should be treated equally? So how can we sentence a person to death? How can we make abortion illegal but capital punishment legal under certain circumstances? No matter how you look at it, capital punishment is murder. If every year about 250 people are added to death row and 35 are executed, imagine how many of these people are actually innocent? Whenever the government decides to sentence a criminal to death, it always seems to forget that the death affects other people related to that person. . Families can be torn apart and siblings or parents put on death row. One mother, Barbara Lewis, said: “My family has lost several members to unexpected violence. Somehow, we have always managed to bury our dead and find a way to move forward. Yet nothing we experienced prepared me for the idea of ​​having a child on death row, wrongly convicted of capital murder. With the death penalty, you feel such agony knowing that the people you trust, the people you work with and live next to, think it's right to take the lives of your relatives. (Not In Our Name: Murder Victims Families Speak Out Against the Death Penalty: Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing: (Wilmington, Delaware) All human life is sacred and every person's right to life must always be respected .life can never be compromised by human misconduct. (The Gospel of Life and Capital Punishment: A Reflection Piece and Study Guide Prepared by the California Conference of Catholic Bishops 1999) Therefore, if all human life is sacred as says, then we can just kill someone... middle of paper... if life was taken or they let both lives be lost It stands to reason that the church is in favor of sparing the killer's life because at least one life is saved but then we have to put ourselves in the shoes of the victim's family and consider how they feel too. If every year there were around 250 people added to death row and 35 executed, imagine how many people this would affect? Furthermore, consider those families who. you know the criminal is innocent but the government won't listen to him, so they can just watch and see that person die? How would you feel if you were one of them? There's not much we can do other than try to keep in mind the number of people that capital punishment affects indirectly and try to help them make capital punishment a thing of the past. Maybe one day we can live in a peaceful world without needing this, but it's up to us to make it happen.