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"CRIME AND PUNISHMENT"  Italicized/emphasized comments prefaced by (R) are those of the respondent and are presented unedited. My replies appear under the respondent's comments in blue text and are prefaced by my initials (MB). (R) I am against capital punishment, but for a slightly different reason. That human lives are too valuable to destroy, once the individual has commited the crime. (MB) What is "valuable" about the life of the murderer? What about the value of the life or lives that he wrongly took? (R) Admidatly they have lost all rights once sentenced to death, but why kill them? Why not continue on with the idea of getting them to give something back to society by making them more like slaves. Have them work to clean up places and do other jobs. Make them really work for their food (just as normal offonders should have to do). (MB) If you consider that the normal appeals process for capital cases tends to drag on for up to a dozen years after conviction, there is plenty of opportunity to get some work out of the condemned criminal prior to his execution. He might give some value back to society from this work, but how could he ever make proper restitution for the lives of his victim(s)? No, execution doesn't bring back the victim(s) or undo what was done, but I feel that it's difficult to argue that it is not fair for somebody who willingly and wrongly takes the life of another person to pay with his own life. E-mail: mlbakke1@earthlink.net Earthlink Network Home Page Return to "Crime and Punishment" essay Back to Philosophy page |