Comments on: On the Death Penalty, Partisanship and the Rape of Children: Part One http://punkassblog.com/2008/06/26/on-the-death-penalty-partisanship-and-the-rape-of-children-part-one/ Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:01:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Sabotabby http://punkassblog.com/2008/06/26/on-the-death-penalty-partisanship-and-the-rape-of-children-part-one/#comment-69736 Sabotabby Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:35:00 +0000 http://punkassblog.com/2008/06/26/on-the-death-penalty-partisanship-and-the-rape-of-children-part-one/#comment-69736 I pretty much agree. The only instance where I think capital punishment is philosophically justified is a pretty rare one (essentially, in circumstances where an individual death must happen for social catharsis to take place; think Mussolini or, in a slightly more just world, Pinochet). Otherwise, my major argument is prosaically utilitarian—there is no need, and thus no reason to take the sort of ethical risk that capital punishment entails. I pretty much agree. The only instance where I think capital punishment is philosophically justified is a pretty rare one (essentially, in circumstances where an individual death must happen for social catharsis to take place; think Mussolini or, in a slightly more just world, Pinochet). Otherwise, my major argument is prosaically utilitarian—there is no need, and thus no reason to take the sort of ethical risk that capital punishment entails.

]]> By: Lisa KS http://punkassblog.com/2008/06/26/on-the-death-penalty-partisanship-and-the-rape-of-children-part-one/#comment-69735 Lisa KS Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:14:24 +0000 http://punkassblog.com/2008/06/26/on-the-death-penalty-partisanship-and-the-rape-of-children-part-one/#comment-69735 "While I agree that there are some circumstances in which one individual can acceptably kill another, that doesn’t mean that there is no MORAL argument against the death penalty." I agree; I was just saying that <em>I</em> don't have one. I know other people do. “While I agree that there are some circumstances in which one individual can acceptably kill another, that doesn’t mean that there is no MORAL argument against the death penalty.”

I agree; I was just saying that I don’t have one. I know other people do.

]]> By: MH http://punkassblog.com/2008/06/26/on-the-death-penalty-partisanship-and-the-rape-of-children-part-one/#comment-69732 MH Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:11:36 +0000 http://punkassblog.com/2008/06/26/on-the-death-penalty-partisanship-and-the-rape-of-children-part-one/#comment-69732 While I agree that there are some circumstances in which one individual can acceptably kill another, that doesn't mean that there is no MORAL argument against the death penalty. I would propose the (blanket) moral statements, "It is always wrong to kill someone who is entirely in your power. It is always wrong to kill someone who poses little or no threat." To the extent these can be said about prisoners, I think these are powerful <i>moral</i> arguments against the death penalty, although there may exist some counterexample I haven't thought of. If police forces engage in a shootout with the mob, and happen to kill some that way, it's morally very, very different from the police shooting an unarmed mobster they've taken into custody. Same killer, same dead body, but morally so very different. This highlights how I can both be against the death penalty in all cases, and yet not find killing to be immoral in all cases. Sometimes killing is the only way to eliminate a threat, but convicted criminals in prison are not threats to society, and so executing them I find morally wrong. Plus the reasons you gave, of course. While I agree that there are some circumstances in which one individual can acceptably kill another, that doesn’t mean that there is no MORAL argument against the death penalty.

I would propose the (blanket) moral statements, “It is always wrong to kill someone who is entirely in your power. It is always wrong to kill someone who poses little or no threat.” To the extent these can be said about prisoners, I think these are powerful moral arguments against the death penalty, although there may exist some counterexample I haven’t thought of.

If police forces engage in a shootout with the mob, and happen to kill some that way, it’s morally very, very different from the police shooting an unarmed mobster they’ve taken into custody. Same killer, same dead body, but morally so very different. This highlights how I can both be against the death penalty in all cases, and yet not find killing to be immoral in all cases.

Sometimes killing is the only way to eliminate a threat, but convicted criminals in prison are not threats to society, and so executing them I find morally wrong.

Plus the reasons you gave, of course.

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