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The death penalty is one of those things where you can't "sit on the fence". You either support it, or you don't. It is just one of those things that everyone is passionate about and if you really want a good argument, just find someone who is against you on this topic and watch the sparks fly! Now, to start off, I want to say that this rant is one the death penalty itself, not what crimes should constitute the death penalty. For this argument we will assume that the crime was something awful, like premeditated murder including robbery and extreme violence:something that any state would seek the death penalty for if they could. So is it ever okay to take someone's life? Often times this argument boils down to whether taking a life is ever justified; that killing someone for murder makes us just as bad as the murderer. For a philosophy that believes in forgiveness, such as Christianity, the death penalty is not justified as long as the convict is kept behind bars for life. Now if he is allowed to go free and possibly kill again, then it might be justified under the belief that killing to prevent greater evil is allowed. For philosophies who do not believe in anything like forgiveness from a god but that we are on this earth for no good reason, like existentialism, then there is no problem killing the convict. Killing him/her has no repercussions since there is no universal ethic to say that execution is unethical. But then again there is nothing to say that what the convict did was wrong either. Kant's categorical imperative would justify this if the convict has shown that he no longer treats people as ends in themselves but means to an end. If the convict has shown this, then they are no longer a human being, but an animal, just a living "thing", and that killing it is perfectly fine, almost required. So for you to personally decide what side you are on in this issue you must decide essentially if the person you are executing is still considered a person or not, and if so, is killing him justified. Most people who say it the death penalty is ethical say so based on the idea that the convict is no longer a human being once they have taken another life. People who are against the death penalty often say that killing a convict is just as wrong as the crime they committed, essentially saying that a human being is always a human being regardless of their actions. So it is your personal choice which side you are on. |