Three Questions - on death, life and religion?

Question

Which crime(s) do you consider worthy of the death penalty?

Do you believe it would be morally right to allow the terminally ill (for whom there is no chance of recovery) to end their lives through medically assisted suicide, if they choose to do so?

What is your religious affiliation?

P.S. I deleted the first version of this question to make a minor correction. I checked for answers before deleting it but found none. Apologies to those whose answers were in progress!

P.S. I deleted the first version of this question to make a minor correction. I checked for answers before deleting it but found none. Apologies to those whose answers were in progress!

My Yahoo has gone mad.

Answer 1

ummm
i think god decide who lives and who dies not humans
that's all what i know
i don't have more medicale details

Answer 2

I believe that the evidence is that the death penalty does not dissuade people from committing heinous crimes. Further, I think that we have seen many death penalty cases overturned because of later DNA evidence. I think that the death penalty teaches the wrong message to citizens. It is like beating a child to get it to stop crying.

I would rather seen life-sentences without parole for some crimes. It strikes me that women who kill get harsher sentences than men, btw. Strange, most of them kill men who are abusing them.

Anyway, I am for the right to suicide. However, I think it violates the Hippocratic Oath for a doctor to assist in suicides. Further, I wonder if there would not be pressure on the person to commit suicide if it becomes a medical/insurance issue. I had a friend with AIDS get a prescription for medication with the "warning" that taking 15 or more could lead to death. Strangely enough, it did. I think that is walking the line closely enough.

I have no religious affiliation. I am Pope of my own church - beyond secular authority in matters spiritual - and do not seek nor want converts. Two direct experiences with the Ineffable has shown me more than a religion could.

Answer 3

With regard to the death penalty I would say there is no crime that warrants this penalty. I have reached this opinion by considering the moral implications of a death penalty and the nature of punishment in general.
Firstly I would consider a death penalty unjust because it implies that anyone who does a crime of this nature is beyond redemption and must be killed for the good of all. That is to say that a person, no matter how they try, cannot change or improve their nature.
Secondly it is obvious that any punishment which is not designed to reform a person is just a method of extracting revenge. Revenge is not just at all as anyone who thinks ethically will realise - I shall not go into a long digression as to why revenge is not moral as to save an unnecessary lecture.
Thirdly I do not consider the death penalty is a good deterrent as I think it is a sad state of affairs to admit that most people would commit horrendous atrocities unless motivated out of them through fear. This way of supposes all people are evil given the opportunity and only cowardice makes them adopt a facade of goodness.
Thus my reason against a death penalty is threefold - that it assumes that people are innatly evil, that people cannot change for the better and that revenge is just. I do not think these concepts correct and as such am against the death penalty.

I am against the unnatural prolongment of life, that is to say I do not think that someone should be forced to live through medical means when they would prefer death. I think that people should always be able to refuse any treatment even if by refusing this treatment they will die.
I do not think I can truely decide without doing more reasearch as to whether people should be allowed to end their lives by choice when they are not being kept alive unnaturally. That is to say I am unsure as to whether I consider it ethical for a person of terminal illness to choose to recieve some kind of overdose. As a sort of "gut instinct" reaction I am against this sort of thing because the person would be, to some extent, viable without this intercession. I can less less harm with the terminally ill refusing food to allow their deaths as this does not involve a person activly killing themselves (or being assisted in doing so) rather it just ends their life by them choosing not to have nutrients. I shall consider this matter more fully and do some more research into biomedical ethics if you want a more in depth answer feel free to contact me on the subject in a few weeks, however this is my fullest answer at this time.

Answer 4

I think anyone who takes the life of another should give up his or her right to continue their life. Any sicko who touches a child in the wrong way should also die, right away with no waiting.

Yes I would like to see the terminally ill be able to take matters into their own hands with the help of a medical doctor. It is their life and should be their right as a human being to die with the dignity they want.

I believe in a Creator or Higher Power or Big Bang, what ever but I do not believe the Bible is truthful and I do have questions about the story of the man Jesus being a God and the Savior of my soul.
And I'm a really good person in spite of that note.

Answer 5

I don't think they should have the death penalty, but we should stick serial murderers, pedophiles and others who would qualify for capital punishment now on an island somewhere, where they cannot ever escape. No luxury accommodations or food, no Internet or TV. Just leave them with books, music, k-rations and each other.
I think it would be morally right for the terminally ill to be allowed to end their lives, if there is no cure available and no hope for cure through clinical trials within the time left that they are expected to live.
I am an Agnostic, and I believe there is God, but we can't ever prove it or disprove it.

Answer 6

1) Don't know. I feel conflicted about the death penalty.

2) No. This is a complex issue, because medicine, in its greatness, has enabled humans to expand their life expectancy, and yet in this, many people are living longer only to get sicker. And looking to medicine for solutions. But suicide is against God's will. As G. K. Chesterton put it, "A murderer kills one man. A suicide kills all men." Because whlie terminal illness can bring with it excruciating pain for a prolonged period of time, it can also bring other things--the chance to amend relationships with people, the opportunity to call on God for strength and mercy, the chance for others to tend to the sick with compassion, dedication, and vigilance, and all sorts of stuff. (And yes, if you think to raise the question, I am considering the possibility that I myself could get sick and suffer hard for a long time.)

3) I have accepted God's gift of salvation through Christ.

Answer 7

The only crime that is worthy of the death penalty is if someone tried to wipe out all life on earth.
Yes, I do believe it is morally right, because if I was suffering like that I would not want to live either.
I made my own out of a combination of different religions; I have not decided a name for it yet, but I am happy with it and the best part about this religion is it is always open for new Ideas and revision.

Answer 8

I personally believe serial killers and Child Molesters deserve the death penalty.

Yes, I think that Terminally Ill patients should be able to choose medically assisted suicide.

I'm a Wiccan.

Answer 9

Death penalty for:
Murder
Rape/Child Molesting
Torture
Treason
Negligent Homicide (like killing somone with a car when drunk)

Assisted Suicide, of course. BTW, The Netherlands allows it.

I have no religious affiliation.

Answer 10

I think anyone (individual or government) who that takes the life of another (which can be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt), or anyone who harms a child or animal in any physical or sexual way, or anyone who commits treason, deserves the death penalty.

I believe that everyone and anyone has the right to take their own, at any time, for any reason.

I have no religious affiliation.

Answer 11

Death should be a penalty in cases of murder, rape, violent crime, severe child abuse, and child molestation/indecency in which the victim is under 14. I think, though,that the judge or jury should decide whether a particular incident is severe enough to be punishable by death.


I believe it is one's right to die, just as it is their right to live. I also believe that it falls under the American right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." If pursuing happiness means ending pain, then so be it. In fact, I believe that it is immoral to go against a mentally capable person's wishes by forcing them to stay alive in excruciating pain.


I am an atheist.