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Michael Sattler's Arguments Against Capital Punishment?

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Capital punishment, commonly known as the death penalty, has not always been controversial. In the early 1600s, capital punishment was seen as an absolute option for the punishment of evildoers. However, over the past century and before the 1600s, scholars have shown strong arguments against the use of the death penalty as a means of punishment. This paper argues against capital punishment through the lenses of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Michael Sattler’s Anabaptist view on the use of violence. This topic will be argued in five sections. Part one briefly introduces the historical development of the death penalty. Part two introduces a summary of the UDHR followed by part three, an analysis of capital punishment through …show more content…

The death penalty is a punishment in the form of execution of capital criminals. Only in the late 1600s was the death penalty first challenged, yet it still continues to be found all over the globe. In countries such as Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, the death penalty still takes thousands of lives each year. The past generated more publicized punishments such as hangings, beheadings, stonings and crucifixions. People were convicted of capital crimes upon charges such as arson, rape, and burglary (Reggio). Today, the most common means of capital punishment are found in the form of lethal injection or electrocution. While there are few states who have abolished capital punishment, many still maintain the legal right to execute those whom the state considers capital criminalists; however, the convicted crime will always be murder and will often be accompanied by other aggravating charges (“Death Penalty”). While many international countries such as Australia, Canada, and a large part of Eastern Europe have eliminated or are moving towards eliminating the death penalty, much of Asia, Africa, and the United States fail to eradicate the practice completely (“Death Penalty”). Capital punishment, in a historical view, may have been necessary as an alternative to incarceration; however, with modern developments and analysis, the argument stands that capital punishment should not be …show more content…

The declaration has served as a model for many domestic constitutions, laws, regulations, and policies that are aimed at protecting fundamental human rights (Hannum 145). For the purpose of this paper, there are three essential aspects of the human rights theory outlined in the UDHR. First, Article 3 grants all humans the right to life stating, “everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of a person.” Second, Article 5 states that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” This right to safety alludes to the negative rights of a human, which grants the moral right that someone remain unharmed or “left alone.” Third, the UDHR argues in favor of the preservation of the human dignity. The document states that an increased awareness of “dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women… have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom” (The United Nations). The belief of human dignity within this document is strongly influenced by Kantian ethics, which believes that humans are their own ends, not the means to the end, and possess intrinsic value (Kant 36). In arguing for human dignity, the UDHR acknowledges the transcendent value of a human and his or her rights as more than just a body and more as a soul. Since publication,

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