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Definition Essay-The Cost Of A Life

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The Cost of a Life
How do we define life? Is it simply something that is living, or does it have a heartbeat, can it breathe, does it think or feel or is it simply the difference between being alive and being dead? The Merriam-Webster dictionary has over 20 ways to define life, yet only one way to define death, as a state of being, of a cessation of life. This brings to mind the question, are lives equal? With so many ways to define a life, how would you answer? Would you say that if it is not human it is not equal to your own, or are the lives of animals and plants equal because they are living in some manner? Are all humans equal to one another? Historically, no: throughout history slavery has been allowed to practice and flourish although not always under the title of slavery. Depending on the color of your skin or your race, people were not considered equal. Prior to the founding of this country and throughout the majority of its history if someone had dark skin then they were not equal to those with pale or …show more content…

Since 1973, over 7,000 people have been sentenced to death. (As of now, only 19 states have discontinued the death penalty as a punishment for capital crimes.) That does not mean that individuals receiving the death sentence prior to the cessation of the death penalty had their sentences commuted though. Some are still on death row, depending upon the state in which they are imprisoned. Something that may be of interest, however, is that the number of death sentences has been dropping drastically since 1999, going from 295 to just 30 in 2016. This could have something to do with the amount of exonerations being given per year, an average of 3 per year 1976-1999, and around 5 a year from 2000 onwards, but it also might have to do with changing beliefs on the death penalty (Facts

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