Australia has abolished the death penalty... or has it?

On the day of writing this article, Indonesia killed eight people by firing squad after granting a stay of execution for a ninth person who was due to be executed. Since I am an Australian, I will focus on the two Australians that were executed and aspects from Australia.

I will also confess that I have mixed views regarding the death penalty. One part of me says that all life is valuable and anyone can have a change of heart, like these two fellows reportedly did... more on that later. The other part of me says that some crimes are so horrific, because of their affect on society, that they forfeit the right to life, crimes such as terrorism, drug related crimes, and sexual abuse, to name but a few.

That said, however, this article will not focus on the merits or lack thereof regarding the death penalty.

An Australian newspaper, called The Australian, funnily enough, reported this “The death penalty was last carried out in Australia in 1967. 48 years is not that long ago, not long enough to for us to feel great moral superiority to countries that persist with the practice of execution”

Really? The death penalty was last used in 1967, they believe?

This is how that headline should have read: “The death penalty was last carried out on born people in Australia in 1967….”

The key word there, of course, is born. It is true, that people who are born are no longer given the death penalty in my country, whether that is a good thing or not is up for debate, and this is not the place I wish to do that.

What people seem to forget however is that there is a mass execution that is still occurring, every single year in Australia, the UK, the US, and many, many other countries. That mass execution is otherwise known as abortion.

That’s right. For those who aren’t up to date on the latest scientific news in this space, abortion is the taking of an innocent human life, i.e. murder…

When the mother walks into the abortion facility, two people are in fact entering the facility, both alive, both of which have a heartbeat, have eyes, hands, and legs. They both have a nose, ears, and even have been assigned a gender.

When the mother walks out, only one leaves alive, although, even in some cases, neither leave alive, as there have been numerous cases of the mother dying from complications of the abortion also.

In Australia, the number of abortions is contested, and there are no official records kept that I have been able to locate, but the statistics I hear about range from 80,000-110,000 each year, most people seem to average it at 100,000.

For the purpose of this article, I’m going to assume the 100,000 figure.

Based on that figure; 100,000 executions take place every year in my country, to put that into context, it is a country of approx. 23 million.

100,000 executions of unborn children occur every single year.

Now, regarding these two Australians who were killed this morning in Indonesia, they were convicted of organising the export of heroin out of Indonesia, headed for Australia.

There were 9 people involved all up. In this execution, the two alleged “organisers” were executed after being sentenced to death in 2006, which was delayed by countless legal challenges and appeals to the President to express a little compassion.

Drug crime is considered to be one of the worst crimes in that country, given how many people die from drugs each year, which is why they have a zero tolerance stance on the subject.

These two men were in their twenties when they were arrested one decade ago this year. They have spent the best part of that decade behind bars in an Indonesian prison.

One of these men ended up becoming an ordained minister after having a conversion to faith, and the other man became quite a gifted painter, both of these men used their new found gifts to help other offenders in that prison, and by all reports, even by Indonesian officials, they reformed during their time in prison.

The difference between these two men, and the 100,000 unborn children executed in my country each year is that those unborn children are innocent. They have not committed any crime, yet their lives are taken away before the get a chance to leave the womb.

And people believe that Australia has not executed anyone in the last 48 years…