Ethics of the death penalty

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:Criminology

Document 1

Innocent human beings cannot and should not be held at ransom by individuals like these. Therefore, the death penalty is moral if it protects society as a whole. The death penalty also acts as a powerful and constant deterrent when it comes to the most heinous crimes. Indeed, there are psychopaths who will not care about the punishment. However, for most people death is something to be feared. There is a moral and practical argument to be made that those who deny others their right to live should also be treated in the same way. A person who takes another person’s life should understand that he or she forfeits his or her own. The society should have the means to make one pay for the life he or she has taken with his or her own.

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Against First of all, taking a person’s life is a violation of a universal human right. Every human has a right to life regardless of what he or she has done or not done. A civilized society should give a criminal every chance to change his or her life and become a productive member of the society (Pollock, 2016). Killing a criminal completely extinguishes any chance that he or she can be rehabilitated. Finally, no justice system on the planet is perfect and innocent people have been executed. It is completely immoral to have such a permanent punishment in a system which cannot guarantee that every convict is guilty. Convicts should remain alive so that they can have a chance to clear their names.

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