Is the death penalty humanitarian?

Forums: Philosophy, Philosophy Of Politics
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Just wondering what people on this forum think about the death penalty? Based on the constitution's prohibition against 'cruel and unusual punishment" in the Eighth amendment I believe that, in certain situations, life in prison is inhumane. I would rather die than be caged up for the rest of my life.

Of course before even considering the death penalty the crime would have to be so egregious that life in prison would be the only alternative. So the only options are 1) life in prison or 2) execution.

Also, a reasonable number of appeals and evidence would need to be in place. Once the fate has been decided, one suggestion is asking the prisoner what they would rather have...death or life in prison. Thus maybe it would be more humane to put some to death while placing others behind bars for life.

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 3,884 • Replies: 41

No top replies

@cruise95,

Being caged up for the rest of one's life is the point of life imprisonment. And couldn't a criminal simply commit suicide in jail instead of sitting in court for months/having the government pay the bill. It's much less expensive to keep a prisoner for life than to go through all the trouble of arranging an execution. The United States is also almost the only developed country that still uses the death penalty. And federal law in the US allows execution merely for drug offences.

1 Reply

@cruise95,

There is supposed to be a nice way to kill people, and there must be since people are still looking...

0 Replies

@cruise95,

I do believe that some do not deserve to exist because of the acts they commit, but I have changed my views over the past 15 years with the advent of D.N.A. profiling. I could not imagine a greater travesty than to have the life of an innocent taken by the state only to find later that they did not commit the crime. D.N.A. has released many on death row in the past 15 years and on this basis I rebuke the death penalty as administered by the state.

---------- Post added 01-08-2010 at 09:54 PM ----------

Leonard;118297 wrote:

And federal law in the US allows execution merely for drug offences.

Leonard you have to qualify this...the law actually states
"drug trafficking resulting in a person's death"
So the context is homicide rather than the commercial transaction.

1 Reply

@cruise95,

I've always disagreed with the death penalty. I believe that as human beings we are reasonable and enlightened enough to punish criminals without needing to satisfy our blood lust.

I struggle to see how we can regard ourselves morally superior to the murderer or the rapist if we reduce ourselves to murder, or support murder in the form of the death penalty.

In England, there seems to be a rise in support for the death penalty, with extreme right-wing (borderline nazi/racialist) groups advocating it's use if they were ever to get into power. I think this is because they are attempting to reflect the publics anger at how our politicians deal with criminals and the prison system, and all the center parties have become to liberal in their outlook.

I believe (to coin a cliche) that the prison system in this country is too "soft", allowing too many luxuries to those who have committed crimes, and this leads to people taking the extreme view of the death penalty as a live option.

0 Replies

@Leonard,

Leonard;118297 wrote:

It's much less expensive to keep a prisoner for life than to go through all the trouble of arranging an execution.

I have actually read an opposing arguments on this claim, and most have come to the conclusion it depends on the case whether or not the death penalty is more expensive than LWOP. Whether or not fiscal attributes of the death penalty or LWOP should pertain to what is humanitarian in this subject is what I am most curious about currently; especially considering the observation that many people make the argument for the cost of DP or the cost of LWOP. I personally have not put enough thought into this to come to a reasonable conclusion, so any input would be much appreciated. :bigsmile:

0 Replies

@cruise95,

At least those who are killed are not dying the slow maddening death of boredom...

If I may suggest: One cannot define the infinite by the absolute...Humanity, and humanitarian are infinites, and human will always be what the humans of any age define, and it is not definite...And death is an absolute, in fact, and usually defined as an infinite...Were it an entity instead of a moral idea, then it would be an infinite since no one can define the living in the process of living...They are what they are..

No single act can define human, or humanity... We are a totality of actions individually, and as a group.

0 Replies

@cruise95,

cruise95;118290 wrote:

Just wondering what people on this forum think about the death penalty? Based on the constitution's prohibition against 'cruel and unusual punishment" in the Eighth amendment I believe that, in certain situations, life in prison is inhumane. I would rather die than be caged up for the rest of my life.

Of course before even considering the death penalty the crime would have to be so egregious that life in prison would be the only alternative. So the only options are 1) life in prison or 2) execution.

Also, a reasonable number of appeals and evidence would need to be in place. Once the fate has been decided, one suggestion is asking the prisoner what they would rather have...death or life in prison. Thus maybe it would be more humane to put some to death while placing others behind bars for life.

I never thought that the death penalty was meant to be humane, if that is what you mean. I think in Utah, the condemned used to be allowed the choice between being hanged and being shot, but that is no longer so.

0 Replies

@cruise95,

It is not that people do not often wish to be cruel, even vicious; but in their actions seek to perceive themselves as humane...It is all about self perception...A victim may awake unknowing, his last day like any other, but the condemned sleep always in the shadow of a noose, and awaken to their nightmares realized.

1 Reply

@Fido,

Fido;131799 wrote:

It is not that people do not often wish to be cruel, even vicious; but in their actions seek to perceive themselves as humane...It is all about self perception...A victim may awake unknowing, his last day like any other, but the condemned sleep always in the shadow of a noose, and awaken to their nightmares realized.

Yes. As Samuel Johnson is reported to have remarked, that tends to "concentrate the mind wonderfully".

1 Reply

@kennethamy,

kennethamy;131815 wrote:

Yes. As Samuel Johnson is reported to have remarked, that tends to "concentrate the mind wonderfully".

I like him...I just got an unabridged Boswells life, plus another biography...
The quotation of his I like is: How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for freedom among the drivers of negroes???

The answer is actually simple: In a slave society no one is free...The slave is too busy to much question his condition, but the slave master, slave to his excesses and unrestrained greed cannot imagine life without slavery, and could not exist without it, so he is a slave to slavery without the advantage every slave has of recreating himself in his creations....

1 Reply

@cruise95,

Basically, we kill to prove what? That killing is wrong?
Also, not a a great argument, but execution does not give the criminal a sufficient amount of time to think about what they did. Agreed, that there are people on death row that have been there for years, but they will eventually be executed. Whereas this certain criminal spending eternity in jail to think about what they did.

1 Reply

@Ccalebb,

Ccalebb;131904 wrote:

Basically, we kill to prove what? That killing is wrong?

No, the point of the death penalty is to punish murder, not killing.

0 Replies

@cruise95,

It is to prove power without which law would have no meaning to the uniformed...

0 Replies

@Psycobabble,

Psycobabble;118458 wrote:

I do believe that some do not deserve to exist because of the acts they commit, but I have changed my views over the past 15 years with the advent of D.N.A. profiling. I could not imagine a greater travesty than to have the life of an innocent taken by the state only to find later that they did not commit the crime. D.N.A. has released many on death row in the past 15 years and on this basis I rebuke the death penalty as administered by the state....

I think this is key to the whole matter from a practical standpoint. The death penalty is problematic because mistakes are made, and if a mistake is discovered later on, someone in prison can be set free, which is obviously still not justice as the person cannot be given back the time they have lost, but with the death penalty, there is no restitution of any kind that is possible for the person who was wrongly condemned. So the issue is not merely what the guilty person deserves, but what are the practical results of a particular policy.

But to the original post: I would have no objection to allowing people to commit suicide whenever they wish to do so. That obviously is not our current practice, but I think it should be. That, of course, takes us beyond the subject of the current thread, so I will presently say no more on that subject.

I may also add that if life in prison is inhumane as it is done now, that does not mean that life in prison is necessarily inhumane. It may be that we are simply doing it improperly.

0 Replies

@Fido,

Is it me or is the OP's question at Catch-22 levels of absurd? Prisons are inhumane, so the humane thing to do is kill the prisoners. Am I the only person who sees why this is insane?

1 Reply

@amist,

amist;136593 wrote:

Prisons are inhumane, so the humane thing to do is kill the prisoners. Am I the only person who sees why this is insane?

So does that mean we should kill the prisons?

About the OP, based on the definition of humanitarianism, the death penalty is not humanitarian. It will never be that ever. There is nothing humane about it.

We kill to punish? I think that if you punish someone you want them to learn their lesson, therefore the death penalty is not punishment, it is just getting away with murder, or perhaps societies revenge on the criminal. But it is definitely not a form of punishment.

0 Replies

@cruise95,

Quote:

So does that mean we should kill the prisons?

Why do we have to kill something?

1 Reply

@amist,

amist;136811 wrote:

Why do we have to kill something?

Ahh, I see, okay.

Well, I agree, we shouldn't have to kill. There really is no need for it. What does it solve? Do we think that killing somebody will stop someone else from committing the same crime? Like I said, it's not punishment, what we need is punishment, not revenge.

1 Reply

@mike90t09,

mike90t09;136813 wrote:

Ahh, I see, okay.

Well, I agree, we shouldn't have to kill. There really is no need for it. What does it solve? Do we think that killing somebody will stop someone else from committing the same crime? Like I said, it's not punishment, what we need is punishment, not revenge.

It's not revenge. It's justice.

0 Replies

Is the death penalty humanitarian?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know