Sometimes when I squash a bug I think about the tiny, mysterious, irreplaceable spark of life I’ve snuffed out. Even if I could perfectly rebuild the body of the bug I couldn’t put the life back into it. But I still kill mosquitoes and wasps with extreme prejudice.

A girl I knew was so pro life she disliked walking on grass for fear of squashing insects. She disarmed all the rat traps in her college where they were suffering an infestation. Maybe she didn’t wash to avoid killing off colonies of micro-organisms on her body.

While I don’t take my reverence for life to that level I wouldn’t willingly kill a bird, a sheep or a cow – though I still eat chicken, beef and lamb. I wouldn’t personally kill a baby, a prisoner or an enemy soldier but I recognize that these life and death issues – abortion, execution and war – are not morally straight forward.

The fact that a quarter of all pregnancies in New Zealand end in abortion is truly appalling – over 17,000 abortions a year – one every 30 minutes. On the other hand there are occasions when abortion seems the lesser of two evils. Women forced to take this drastic step through circumstances beyond their control should be supported not condemned. But what about people using murder as retroactive birth control?

I believe that abortion, war, execution and suicide are all forms of murder. If you’re going to be consistently pro-life you have to be anti murder in all its forms.

How about a serial murderer, an incurable killer who has robbed others of life, destroying families, causing untold grief – surely someone like this should be put down like a rabid dog rather than jailed for life at our expense? But what about the executioners? What about the state that sanctions execution? Are they not committing the same crime as the condemned?

Soldiers are trained and paid to kill, promoted and decorated if they kill effectively but if they’re caught killing the wrong person or kill in the wrong place they’re tried for murder. All too often soldiers are court-martialed for killing civilians but if they were in a jet or a battleship firing missiles into a city, missiles which kill hundreds of civilians, their actions would go unquestioned and unpunished. They are only following orders of officers who are following the orders of commanders who are following the orders of politicians. And how often are politicians held accountable for starting a conflict?

Of course the politicians always have a plausible reason for war – protecting our democratic way of life, supporting our allies, taking down an enemy which may have weapons of mass destruction – weapons that we can have but they certainly can’t.

General Omar Bradley, who once controlled the whole US army, observed that “We have grasped the mystery of the atom, and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.”

Benjamin Franklin had this to say “I hope…that mankind will at length, as they call themselves reasonable creatures, have reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats; for in my opinion there never was a good war, or a bad peace.”

Sting in his song about the Russians has a great line…”There’s no such thing as a winnable war, it’s a lie we don’t believe any more.”

War is an abomination which causes ordinary men and women to turn on each other in hatred and murder. I work with a lovely German woman who is a dear friend but our fathers and grandfathers could have been forced to kill each other. War is evil but if an aggressor attacked Aotearoa/NZ would I have the courage to resist peacefully or would I pick up a gun?

Gandhi claimed that while there were causes for which he would die, there were no causes for which he would kill. While I admire his stance I know that if someone was trying to kill my family I would do anything, including murder, to stop him.

For a Christian organization like TEAR Fund being pro life isn’t an option it’s a command. We believe that God, like any loving parent, wants all his children, regardless or race or religion, to enjoy a reasonable level of life, health and peace. We would applaud the words of Dwight Eisenhower when he said that “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

I am aware this article asks more questions than it supplies answers. Like Helen Keller “I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.” I would welcome intelligent responses to the questions raised by these life and death issues of abortion, capital punishment and war. Suicide and euthanasia are also important aspects of this debate – whether it is ever morally acceptable to violate the very clear commandment “You shall not kill”.

Related posts:

1. Calling for the Global Abolition of the Death Penalty
2. Drone Warfare – A Test of Your Moral Judgement