My chosen ethical issue is the death penalty.
The death penalty, also called capital punishment, is a sentence or punishment of death by execution. The government or state usually executes a person because they have committed a serious crime. Executions can be done by:
Electrocution - Person is put on an electric chair that sends out a strong source of electricity to their head and legs.
Lethal injection - The person is poisoned with a mix of chemicals that are injected into their body while they are unconscious.
Firing squad - A small group of people shoot the prisoner with rifles.
Hanging - The person has a rope tied around their neck and they are dropped from a height.
Stoning - Stones are thrown at the person until they die.
Decapitation/Beheading - Person has their head cut off with a sharp blade such as a sword or guillotine.
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Cyanide or nitrogen gas is produced in the chamber to cut off oxygen to their brain.
Capital punishment has been used in almost every part of the world, but many countries have since abolished it. Out of the 195 independent states that have links to the UN, as of July 2015 102 have abolished it, 7 have abolished it but retain it for exceptional circumstances, 50 retain it but have not used it for at least 10 years, and 36 retain it both in law and practice.
The death penalty is very much an ethical issue. Ethical can be defined as ‘of, relation to, or dealing with ethics’ and ethics can be defined as ‘moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conductions of an activity.’ Capital punishment is an ethical issue because of the general moral issues of punishment in conjunction with the problem of whether it is ever morally right to deprive a human of life.
In this report I am going to analyse the Catholic response to the ethical issue of the death penalty.
Pros of The Death
Now, in order to truly look at the topic at hand, I feel that it is necessary to examine a few different viewpoints when it comes to this ethical issue. These viewpoints are called deontological, and utilitarianism. Each approach provides a unique look in the idea of capital punishment and will help to look at the consequences at the present time, as well as in the future. The question of whether it is ethically acceptable to take the life of someone is at the heart
Senator for Utah Orrin Hatch once said, “Capital punishment is our society’s recognition of the sanctity of human life,” (Brainy Quote). While the arguments for both sides of the debate over the morality of the death penalty are vast, the bottom line is that the death penalty does not disregard human life, but rather it reveres it, as Hatch said. Morality is defined as, “The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct,” (The Free Dictionary). One who seeks to protect a person who has committed a heinous crime such as murder is arguably not in accords with what is right and wrong. Therefore, although killing is generally accepted as being wrong, the death penalty is sometimes the only solution to bring justice to a
¨The taking of even one life is a momentous event.¨ (Bernardin, The Consistent Ethic of Life). The consistent ethic of life is founded on the belief that all life is sacred and worth protecting, while the reasons for capital punishment may seem similar-- retaliation for a life lost-- the death penalty directly goes against everything the consistent ethic of life teaches. As proven through these presentations, capital punishment cases are often inaccurate and biased, while the act of the Death Penalty has proven to be painful with many examples of botched executions. Not only is killing immoral, but how can we go through with these executions when evidence has shown the death penalty can be inefficient and some
Capital Punishment is a moral controversy in today’s society. It is the judicial execution of criminals judged guilty of capital offenses by the state, or in other words, the death penalty. The first established death penalty laws can date back to the Eighteenth Century B.C. and the ethical debates towards this issue have existed just as long. There is a constant pro-con debate about this issue, and philosophers like Aristotle and Mill have their own take on this controversy as well. Aristotle is against capital punishment, while Mill believes it is morally permissible.
Capital Punishment, also known as the Death Penalty, is described as a government practice where a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for crimes such as murder, treason, espionage, and genocide.
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a government sanctioned practice where a person is put to death as a punishment for a crime. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. Among countries around the world, almost all European and many Pacific Area states, and Canada have abolished capital punishment.
Since 1976 there have 1386 executions by lethal injection. Lethal injection is the three drug protocol usually begins with an anesthetic or sedative, followed by pancuronium-bromide to paralyze the inmate, and potassium chloride to
Chamber is where a person is put in a room with a deadly gas called
If there is a desire by the American people to maintain the death penalty, let us at least be spared the hypocrisy of a justification by example. The death penalty is a penalty, to be sure, a frightful torture, both physical and moral, but it provides no sure example except a demoralizing one. It punishes, but it forestalls nothing; indeed, it may even arouse the impulse to murder. It hardly seems to exist, except for the man who suffers it-- in his soul for months and years, in his body during the desperate and violent hour when he is cut in two without suppressing his life. Let us call it by the name which, for lack of any other nobility, will at least give the nobility of truth, and let us
Lethal injection is performed by binding an inmate to a hospital type bed. Heart monitors are placed on the inmate so doctors will know when the
active euthanasia – where a person deliberately intervenes to end someone’s life – for example, by injecting them with a large dose of sedatives
Should one person have the right to end another human's life? It is a question most people have the answer for when it comes to capital punishment. Capital punishment is known to some people one of the cruelest punishment to humanity. Some people believe giving a person the death penalty doe's not solve anything. While other's believe it is payback to the criminal for the crime they have committed. There have been 13,000 people executed since the colonial times, among 1900 and 1985 there were 139 innocent people sentence to death only 23 were executed. In 1967 lack of support and legal challenges cut the execution rate to zero bringing the practice to a complete end by 1972. Although the supreme court authorized its resumption in 1976
Capital punishment has in the past been practiced in virtually every society, although currently only 58 nations actively practice it, with 95 countries abolishing it and the remainder of 101 countries keep it as a law for really serious crimes.
The first type of execution is the gas chamber . In the gas chamber the type of gas which is disperses from the chamber is cyanide gas. When this gas is exposed within a tight space which seeing from the videos i 've been watching of the gas chamber is that if someone comes within distance of this gas it may kill them. The process of the gas chamber execution is similar to the lethal injection and also electrical chair because the prisoner is restrained in a steel chair the only thing that makes it different is that it has a pan below the chair so that the chemicals can go into. The first gas that would be opened will releases hydrochloric acid into the pan. This causes the body to break down slowly . When the second gas is given out , there are about eight
The death penalty, sometimes referred to as capital punishment, can be defined as the administering of execution by law officials for serious and fatal crimes. The methods for executions have been excessively renewed to accommodate suffering. Today, it is executed by lethal injection considered to be a fast and painless process.