The Ethics Of Capital Punishment

Capital punishment is a difficult subject for a lot of people because many question whether or not it is ethical to kill a convicted criminal. In order to critically analyze whether or not it is ethical, I will look at the issue using a utilitarianism approach because in order to get a good grasp of this topic we need to look at how the decision will impact us in the future. The utilitarianism approach will help us to examine this issue and see what some of the consequences are with this topic of capital punishment. For years, capital punishment has been used against criminals and continues to be used today, but lately this type of punishment has come into question because of the ethical question.

My topic is discussing the ethical issue of the act of capital punishment on prisoners who have committed serious crimes. According to www.amnesty.org there are hidden executions that are taking place across the world. These countries include South and North Korea as well as America. In 2001 there were 3,048 reported cases in 31 countries. 90% of the deaths occurred in four countries. China carried out 2,468 executions. Iran killed 139 people, Saudi Arabia 79 and the United States had 66. Furthermore Japan does in fact have the highest rate of capital punishment. Also in America there is 8 states which use the death penalty as a punishment on prisoners. The state with the highest death rate is Virginia which uses the lethal injection as its preferred method. The reason capital punishment is an ethical issue is the moral decision on whether killing a human is right or wrong. Even though that prisoner has committed serious crimes and has sacrificed the lives of others, it would be morally wrong to kill another person. “We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing”- U.S Catholic Conference. The reason that I chose this particular question was because I was particularly interested on the topic of how prisoners are treated on death row. This is because of the crimes they have committed and I am intrigued on whether they are treated differently.

5. Therefore, it is morally permissible to set the right to life aside, and use the death penalty, if they took the life of an innocent human.

Philosophy branch which streamlines, protects and guides the concepts of being correct or incorrect is referred as Ethics. People learn this concept from their parents who got it from their parents and it is a chain. However philosophers claim that it is people’s belief which decide ethics along with human intuition. An individual at singular level conscientiously decides what is right and wrong and define a limit of pushing ethical behaviour and morality in being. Moral acceptability of any action can be judged from the points if action is understood by an individual well, the consequences of that action on public, fair treatment of action with all people respectfully and the way action is being performed, the motivation of people for it.

Does taking another’s life actually avenge that of another? The disciplinary act of capital punishment, punishment through death, has been a major debate in the United States for years. Those in support of capital punishment believe that it is an end to the reoccurrence of a repeat murderer. The public has, for many years, been in favor of this few and pro-death penalty. Yet as time goes on, records show a decrease in the public and the state’s support of the continuation of capital punishment. Those against capital punishment believe it is an immoral, spends taxpayers’ money improperly, and does not enforce a way to rehabilitate criminals and/or warn off future crimes.

Capital punishment uses death penalty as a form of punishment in many states and countries. It is a practice that has raised endless questions all over the world. Capital punishment or death penalty policy has changed in many countries overtime. Countries such as, New Australia, Zealand and 15 states in the US do not have capital punishment. One of the major concerns arising with capital punishment is because it causes ending of a human life. People and organizations of different backgrounds are not pleased with the practice because it undermines humanity. Society being mixed of different people there are different opinions. Some people argue that it is effective while others condemn it because it oppresses the less fortunate and the poor

The assumption of the capital punishment in the United States was to scare and punishment prisoners, in the hope that they would not continue to live a life of crime (Schubert). The capital punishment also known as the death penalty is a government sanctioned practice whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. It is emphasizing though the ethical theories of retribution and utilitarianism, which focus more on matching the punishment to the crime the offender committed. The concept behind the capital punishment is to stop potential crimes from happening. This is done in hope that people will start thinking of the consequences of their actions and that it will be less likely for them to commit more crimes. The capital punishment is unethical for many reason, which as it promotes killing in a country to says killing is wrong, to the right of life and also unethical to the oath that physician had mad. It is the right way to protect other from other crimes to be committed or it’s the way for the government to kill people and called lawful and get away with it?

The death penalty is a highly-debated topic among Americans, and although proponents for capital punishment slightly outnumber those who oppose it, the number of executions in the United States has sharply declined in the past two decades. Those who hold strong negative opinions about this issue argue that there is not enough compelling evidence to indicate whether or not the use of capital punishment is a crime deterrent, and others argue that minorities represent the majority of those executed, which is grossly unfair. Lawmakers have succeeded in passing legislation that has improved how executions are carried out, and over the course of history, the justice system has at its disposal more effective tools to determine a person’s guilt or

The debate over capital punishment is in regards to whether the death penalty contradicts the Eighth Amendment. If the death penalty does contradict the Eight Amendment, then the State should not have the power to sentence criminals to death for capital crimes. However, if capital punishment is not against the Eighth Amendment, then the State has the right to sentence criminals to death. In this essay I will first summarize Justice Brennan’s argument on why the death penalty is beyond the power of the State to inflict. Then, I will explain and discuss each of Brennan’s premises. Finally, I will analyze each of Brennan’s faulty premises. If I can successfully prove that one of his premises is false, it will prove that his argument is unsound. Although Brennan’s conclusion follows with necessity from his premises, making his argument valid, his argument is unsound because his third premise is false.

Punishment is defined as a penalty inflicted on an offender through judicial procedure or, in simple definition, the act of making one suffer. Parole, fines, incarceration, and probation are all forms of punishment. The idea of punishment is not limited to imprisonment but extends back to the Ancient times of banishment and back to the year 1792 when the first person was beheaded by the guillotine. Today the most notable and extreme form of punishment is capital punishment, or the death penalty. As of 2016, the amount of states that have authorized the death penalty is 32 and the amount to have abolished it is 19, which leads the question of, how ethical is punishment? The ancient philosophy of Stoicism took

previously discussed that have played a vital role in what capital punishment looks like today in America. More recently there has many more reversed cases because of the fact of DNA. Many people that were on death row have been freed from prison because of newly discovered DNA evidence. These findings of innocent people have caught the attention of the Supreme Court Justices, political leaders, religious leaders, and even people who previously have supported the death penalty. Many people question the death penalty in light of these findings, they believe that maybe the death penalty is not an ethical choice for punishments because the risk of innocent people being put to death, and the fact that there is no way of completely eliminating

Capital punishment seems to be a very current topic that many people have spoken on. To simplify maters, this act was first seen in the United States during colonial North America. The death penalty was strongly influenced by European practices, and settlers came to the new world where similar practices were brought and recognized. The first execution within colonial North America started in Jamestown colony were Captain George Kendall was found guilty for being a spy for Spain. This serves as the first example of execution within the United States and the question remains whether the death penalty should continue. Using several

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

Two major claims: death penalty serves as a deterrent and death penalty is morally justified because murderers can’t live and you have a right to kill them.

That is because politicians fail to involve the citizens in the making choices on behalf of the state. In other words, because the politician's views about capital punishment are misunderstood citizens are not aware of their effect on a politician's behavior. One such behavior entails the social aspect as part of normative ethics (Malici & Smith, 2013). Normative ethics involves the behavior of society to do right or wrong associating with politicians in states that decide to retain or abolish capital punishment. So, because capital punishment is controversial, it is part of applied ethics as it defines a type of human behavior (Malici & Smith, 2013). For this reason, it makes it difficult for researchers to depict research ethically efficiently.