Human experiments? Or the death penalty?

Question

I am a person who believes that rehabilitation does not work. The current levels of recidivism, and the luxurious state of our (UK) prisons mean that custodial sentences are hardly a deterrent anymore, espaecially with a mandatory early release if your sentence happens to be under 5 years. A man of the cloth once proposed, in a local newspaper (Daily Record) that prisoners, who have commited certain classes of crime, ie: rape, murder, etc, should be used for medical experiments - and the data gathered would be more meaningful than experiments on animals. Although we have had some success with animal experiments (isolation of insulin, etc), the results can be disastrous when this fails, like Thalidomide. Who thinks that this "modest proposal" should be implemented?

Answer 1

I've always belived that drugs and cosmetics should be treated on prisoners, as testing on animals is incredibly cruel, and even if the animals survive the results could be different for humans. who said that humans had the right to take the lives of animals for their own gain? it's still murder.

Answer 2

OMG, are you serious. Just because these people committed crimes your basically saying it's OK to torture them. Experiments are dangerous and a lot can go wrong. Did you know that during the Luxembourg trials after World War II the scientist put on trial claimed that the Holocaust was for the sake of science and that since the "Jews were inferior" they thought of them as the perfect 'guinea pigs' , so when you were writing this questions you didn't think how barbaric and murderous you sounded. Personally I don't like the death penalty either, but it's better than suffering everyday.

Answer 3

Are you a fascist? This "modest proposal" was tried in Nazi Germany. Even though we have the best legal system that money can buy (or maybe because of it), it is possible that someone could be falsely convicted. But even if the person actually commits a heinous offense, you are sinking to his level (and bringing the rest of society with you) if start thinking that cruel medical experiments should be performed on any human.

Answer 4

That is such a difficult question to answer! As many others have pointed out, it smacks of Nazism.

However, I do get cross that a lot of serious offenders (those who have committed unbelievable & disgusting crimes) seem to have more rights than the law abiding, tax paying citizens of the country.

Perhaps MORE should be done by the authorities to rehabilitate these people. Not just locking them up with SKY TV, access to drugs and alcohol (through "bent & greedy prison officers), the freedom to have affairs and study. Teach them to be of some use to society when they have served their sentence - then they can come out and be decent citizens - hopefully.

The problems in this country stem from lack of discipline - taken away from parents and schools by bleeding heart activists and governments. We do many of the children of this country a dis-service by allowing them to run riot and let them THINK they know what their rights are - sadly, they do know that they can get away with numerous crimes before they are banged up - only to be released again to re-offend. Many of them do not know the love of two parents and the stability of a life with boundaries of social acceptability. By doing them a dis-service, we are also doing ourselves a dis-service because we are reaping the anti social behaviour and increased crime rates.

So no, we should not experiement on them in this way, but should demand that more be done to prevent them reoffending - then perhaps think of the "modest proposal".

Answer 5

No it has overtones of Doctor Mengle's experiments on prisoners during the second world war and look how the world pilloried him. If this proposal was implemented it would make us unfeeling animals. A better option would be to bring back the death penalty for these crimes and give them less home comforts in prison.

Answer 6

It's a bad road to go down.Where would it lead to. If this is modest what would you class as extreme? One thing leads to another,soon things would be done that are reminiscent of nazism. As for it being proposed by a man of the cloth,it is the concept that should be challenged and no credence given to wrong ideas just because the idea came from someone of supposedly high repute. Morally legitimate ways to conquer disease should be sought otherwise we lose our humanity in pursuit of cures.

Answer 7

I can agree the rehabilitation won't work on some people, such as psychopaths. But as long we don't have 100% accurate method of deciding whether a person is psychopath/uncurable for other reasons, this is a bad idea.
Personally I still think it's a bad idea allover.

Answer 8

i totally agree!! probably about 95% of criminals who get out of jail in under 5 years or even more, will do it again anyway!! They treat their victims like a piece of meat, so why shouldnt we do experiments on them as if they are meat for us to play with! I think experiment on them, then when we have no use for them, death penalty but only if there is solid proof! great question! x

Answer 9

I think that this idea would have no good outcome. Since prisoners will be released someday the settlements by government and lawsuits would be tremendous for harm done.
We had better go back to the drawing board on this idea.

Answer 10

i feel that this should be implemented.
but under certain conditions
a. animal testing proceed this test on humans.
b. only certain crime categories
c. after any testing the criminal must have the right to die in order to be merciful if something goes wrong