Ethics Of Capital Punishment Essay Research Paper

Ethics Of Capital Punishment Essay, Research Paper

Ethical Evaluation Of Capital Punishment

Agape, Christian love, is unconditional. It does not depend on the worthiness or merit of those to whom it is directed. It is persistent in seeking the good of others, regardless of whether they return the favor, or, as in most cases, even deserve to be treated well on the basis of their own incessant wrongdoing. An ideal community would be made up of free and equal citizens, devoted to a balance between individual self-fulfillment and the progression of the common good. Everyday life would be based on mutual love in which the equality of giving and receiving was the status quo of social society. Everyone would contribute to the best of his or her ability, and each would receive in accordance with legitimate claims to available resources.

What would a community based these standards do with those who committed brutal acts of terror, violence, and murder. Put negatively, it would not live by the philosophy of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for a life.” It would act to protect the members of the community from further destruction. Those who had shown no respect for life would be held in reserve, permanently if necessary, so that they could no longer endanger other members of the community. But, the purpose of confinement would not be vengeance or punishment. Rather, an ideal community would show mercy: even to those who show no mercy. It would return good for evil. The aim of isolation is reconciliation and not revenge. Agape never gives up. It is ever hopeful that even the worse among us can be redeemed so that their own potential contribution to others can be realized. Opportunities for confronting those who had been hurt by the action could be provided to encourage remorse and reconciliation. If a life has been taken, no full restitution can ever be made, of course. A price, or punishment for that matter, could never justify the taking of someone s life. But some kind of service to the community might be required as a way of partially making amends.

The ethical issue of capital punishment involves determining whether the execution of criminals is ever justified, and, if so under what circumstances it is permissible. Philosophical defenses of capital punishment usually draw from more a broad discussion of punishment. The subject of corrective justice in legal philosophy distinguishes between two principal theories of punishment: utilitarian and retributive. Most criticisms of capital punishment seek to expose flaws in popular justifications of capital punishment. Thus, in the absence of an exceedingly good reason for executing a criminal, the critic of capital punishment concludes that the criminal should be allowed to live.

The most common defenses of capital punishment are based on utilitarian beliefs. For utilitarians, punishment in general is justified if and only if it creates a greater balance of happiness as opposed to unhappiness. So, from the utilitarian perspective, capital punishment is justified if it prevents the criminal from repeating his crime, or, if it prevents crime in general, by discouraging would-be offenders. Both of these contribute to a greater balance of happiness in society. There are several immediate problems with this line of reasoning though. First, the burden of proof is on the defender of capital punishment to show that the same effects on society could not be accomplished with a less severe punishment: such as life imprisonment. This is especially significant since the goal of utilitarianism is to reduce as much unhappiness as possible, and this would entail sentencing the less severe of two possible punishments. Italian political theorist Cesare Beccaria argues this point in On Crimes and Punishment, one of the first critiques of capital punishment from the utilitarian point of view. According to Beccaria, capital punishment is not necessary to deter crime, and long-term imprisonment is a more powerful deterrent, since execution is transient.

A second and more basic problem with the utilitarian defense of capital punishment involves the fact gathering process. Since the utilitarian is making a factual claim about the beneficial social consequences of capital punishment, then his claim should be backed by empirical evidence. In the absence of such reliable empirical evidence, the utilitarian position must be dismissed. “Empirical evidence” in general is of two varieties: anecdotal evidence and scientific evidence. Anecdotal evidence involves isolated observations, which appear to associate two states of affairs, which, in this case, would be capital punishment, and improved social conditions. Given the seriousness of the issue at stake with capital punishment, namely, people’s lives, anecdotal evidence is an insufficient ground for establishing a causal connection between capital punishment and improved social conditions. Instead, scientific studies are needed. Several studies have been conducted in the past few decades regarding such a connection, but unfortunately, the methodology used on social questions of this nature is almost absolutely imprecise. Ideally, a truly scientific study of the question would involve a comparison between two, otherwise identical, societies in which capital punishment was not used in the control group but was used in the test group. The problem, though, is tha