Following the Boston Marathon bombing , the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts opposed the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , citing the need to build a culture of life . In their statement , they cited a 2005 document by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops , '' A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death , '' which said " no matter how heinous the crime , if society can protect itself without ending a human life , it should do so . " A growing culture of life in the United States , one that took the protection of life more seriously , led to the rapid adoption of infant safe-haven laws in the early 2000s . Under these laws , mothers can leave their newborn children in places such as hospitals , police stations , and fire houses , without being criminally charged with child abandonment
Boston Marathon bombing
Boston Marathon bombing
Culture of life