Catholic Church Death Penalty

Throughout our lives, we face many situations that pose different ethical issues. Whether these situations are personal, or world wide, they are always here. A certain issue that has caught the public’s attention is The Death with Dignity Act. Death with Dignity involved a woman, named Brittany Maynard. Regarding all ethical issues, people may support things, while some people may not. Brittany’s decision was ethical and changed her life forever. From this, I determined that this decision was through rights - based ethics.

Over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries use of the death penalty was increasingly restricted to the most serious offences. It was removed from pickpocketing in 1808, and from many more offences in the 1820s and 1830s. By the 1840s only those found guilty of the most serious offences (murder, wounding, violent theft, arson, sodomy) were sentenced to death (though only murderers were actually executed), and the 1861 Offences Against the Persons Act abolished the death penalty for all offences except for murder and High Treason.

. . we have a duty to protect and foster it [human life], from conception to natural death, and in all circumstances. Because we acknowledge that human life is also social, society must protect and foster it.¨ (Bernardin) In this one passage the Consistent Ethic of Life creates an unbreakable argument against the death penalty. It leaves no room for loop holes or circumstance, human life is to be protected until natural death no matter what, no ifs or buts. This belief that the death penalty is wrong does not only go against Catholic teaching but most Christian denominations teachings as well, with Christians making up 70% of all Americans -- Catholics making up 22%-- how are there currently 32 states that continue to practice the death penalty? (Death Penalty in The U.S) If Christian teaching and the Consistent Ethic of Life directly go against the death penalty how do 64% of all states in America actively use the Death Penalty? Cardinal Bernardin spoke in his speech on C.E.L saying ¨A consistent ethic of life must be held by a constituency to be effective. The building of such a constituency is precisely the task before the Church and the nation.¨ Catholics need to rise to this call of constituency and actively speak out against what we hold to be wrong and unjust. Only through a large

In almost every society, there are crimes and violations of human rights. To deal with these things, there are laws that prescribe the prevention of their occurrences. However, if the law is broken, commensurate punishment is put on the violator. Depending on the seriousness of the crime, the punishment may be light such as imprisonment for up to one year with corresponding fines, or it could also be severe as death penalty.

Democrats are against death penalty. Republicans are for death penalty. Democrats believe death penalty is not necessary. Republicans feel that passing retribution is fundamental to

Throughout history, many governments were implementing the death penalty unfairly because of the unjust rulers, such as the Romans and the Ottomans. For example, they were executed people who were demanding for their rights. Furthermore, the penalty ways were very ugly and inhumane. To be more precise, Romans used the saw to cut up the accused into two halves and this execution-style was the favorite of the Roman emperor Caligula. Also, Ottomans were using the stake in the death penalty to make the victim suffer as long as possible before he died.

The death penalty is a controversial issue because it involves a dispute between sides which hold opposing views. Those who support the death penalty believe that it deters criminals and makes them think twice. Some supporters claim that it is morally right and gives victims justice. Furthermore, supporters of the death penalty think that it is the only way to fully protect society.According to “Solid Majority Continue to Support Death Penalty” ”About six in ten americans favor the use of death penalty for a person convicted of murder”(Solid 2016). On the other hand those who oppose death penalty think that the cost outweighs the benefits. They also argue that the death penalty can be faulty at times. Opponents argue that the death penalty

Whether innocent or guilty, no one has the right to end someone’s life. As a civilized society, the act of killing someone as

Religion plays a big role in some people 's lives and can influence their opinion on capital punishment. In the U.S. the two largest religions are Christianity and Judaism, within both of those religions some people are for capital punishment and some are against capital punishment. Several christian groups in the late 1970s formalized their religious and moral reasons against the imposition of the death penalty. “Among them was, capital punishment: violated the command by Jesus to employ the ethic of love, perpetuated the evil of retaliation, ignored the guilt that the society may have had in the causation of the crime, and prevented the possibility of any kind of rehabilitation of the criminal” (Flamehorse).

The survey provides the information of how the relationship between gender, religion, ethnicity, and political ideology relate to their approval or disapproval of the death penalty. The two variables that are important to the survey in the Gallup study, is political ideology and political affiliation. The Gallup study has shown that seventy four percent of conservatives are in favor of the death penalty, 68% of moderates are for the death penalty, and 54% of liberals are in favor of the death penalty. The Gallup study has also shown that 80% of republicans are for the death penalty, 65% of independents are in favor of the death penalty, and 58% of democrats are in favor of the death penalty. Based on the Gallup study I believe that conservatives will have the highest percentage of members in favor of the death penalty when political ideology is tested. Also, that republicans will have the highest percentage of members in favor of the death penalty when political affiliation is

The right to die with dignity is a very controversial topic. Some have not even heard of this either because the state they live in hasn’t legalized it, or because it never was brought up in their lives before. Since the early nineteen-nineties, this law has been debated about and brought up numerous times in terminally ill cases. Lately, especially since four states have legalized it and 50% of the states, not including the ones that have already legalized it, have considered permitting the death with dignity law while some people are still against it.

Although traditionally also a supporter of capital punishment, the Roman Catholic Church now oppose the death penalty. In addition, most Protestant denominations, including Baptists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and the United Church of Christ, oppose the death penalty. During the 1960s, religious activists worked to abolish the death penalty, and continue to do so today.

Death is an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, enormity and finality. Human life has it’s value and to punish someone by ending their life might seem immoral, but in front of the constitution, death penalty can be justifiable based on the crime. Even though one might deserve this punishment under the law, is it a human right to end someone's life? The death penalty might stand as an ultimate judgment in the sense that it rightfully punishes the guilty and safeguards other human lives. In most moral and religious implications it’s wrong for one human to end another human’s life. The law exist to serve and protect the people so should the system abolish the death penalty based on ethical implications or should it dissolve the current

Pope Francis specifically decided that the Catholic Church has the duty to involve themselves in the hot topic of death penalty and take a stance against it. This idea of “duty,” is clearly stated in the quote by Pope Francis saying that the issue “touch(es) directly on the dignity of human person,” and therefore the Catholic Church must become involved. Of course, the death penalty is just one issue, of many others, that the Church and specifically Pope Francis have spoken out about. Particularly the idea of the Catholic Church feeling a sense of duty to position itself in issues that concern human dignity is an echo reached to the followers of that Church, Catholics in the country and abroad—this idea could prove to be a little

- A person can invoke human dignity or exercise his or her rights and liberties in so far as it is not in violation of rights and liberties of other persons or contrary to this Constitution or good morals.