The death penalty has been viewed as both an effective and defective system of punishment. However, this style of execution is proven to be financially expensive, immoral, unreliable, and overall not the most successful method of criminal correction. Usage of the death penalty should be used only for the most harrowing crimes, such as mass murder and acts of terrorism or treason. Deontologists view the death penalty as a justifiable solution to a problem, as it is fulfilling a duty to uphold the law. Utilitarians believe that there are better, more humane ways of punishing someone than painfully electrocuting them to death, which may take several tries before the person actually dies. Libertarians consider human life sacred, and are predominately
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There are worse things in life than death, such as suffering, lifelong diseases, being the middle part of the human centipede, being tortured- the list goes on. The usage of the death penalty presents a unique dilemma among all three of the moral theories: utilitarianism and deontology, both of which focus on the death penalty as a justifiable punishment, and libertarianism, whose main focal point is that capital punishment should be eradicated completely, yet some libertarianists stand for capital punishment so long as it is a case of retributive justice. Deontology and utilitarianism have different reasons for allowing capital punishment, but deontology provides the most justifiable reason out of the two- because although the government is going against the criminal’s wishes, we are respecting his freedom to make his own decisions, though they were very poor decisions. The government realizes and understands that with great power comes great responsibility, and if someone disrespects that code, they will surely be punished severely in accordance to their crime. In the words of an ethics professor at Binghamton University, “We treat the criminal as an end in himself, which is a powerful form of respect even though that respect may not lie specifically in his lifestyle or his choices”. In other words, by using the death penalty the government is giving the criminal a taste of his own medicine, assuming he committed
There are worse things in life than death, such as suffering, lifelong diseases, being the middle part of the human centipede, being tortured- the list goes on. The usage of the death penalty presents a unique dilemma among all three of the moral theories: utilitarianism and deontology, both of which focus on the death penalty as a justifiable punishment, and libertarianism, whose main focal point is that capital punishment should be eradicated completely, yet some libertarianists stand for capital punishment so long as it is a case of retributive justice. Deontology and utilitarianism have different reasons for allowing capital punishment, but deontology provides the most justifiable reason out of the two- because although the government is going against the criminal’s wishes, we are respecting his freedom to make his own decisions, though they were very poor decisions. The government realizes and understands that with great power comes great responsibility, and if someone disrespects that code, they will surely be punished severely in accordance to their crime. In the words of an ethics professor at Binghamton University, “We treat the criminal as an end in himself, which is a powerful form of respect even though that respect may not lie specifically in his lifestyle or his choices”. In other words, by using the death penalty the government is giving the criminal a taste of his own medicine, assuming he committed