What is the CIVILIZED position regarding capital punishment (the death penalty)?

Answer 1

kill people mean bad people go away. uggg.

Answer 2

It is predictable and entirely appropriate that individuals have strong emotional reactions to horrific crimes. However, a civilized society (and a political system) would be expected to take action based on more utilitarian considerations.

It comes down to learning about the way the capital punishment system actually functions.

124 people on death rows have been released with proof that they were wrongfully convicted. DNA is available in less than 10% of all homicides and isn’t a guarantee we won’t execute innocent people.

The death penalty doesn't prevent others from committing murder. No reputable study shows the death penalty to be a deterrent. To be a deterrent a punishment must be sure and swift. The death penalty is neither. Homicide rates are higher in states and regions that have it than in states that don’t.

We have a good alternative. Life without parole is now on the books in 48 states. It means what it says. It is sure and swift and rarely appealed. Life without parole is less expensive than the death penalty.

The death penalty costs much more than life in prison, mostly because of the legal process which is supposed to prevent executions of innocent people.

The death penalty isn't reserved for the worst crimes, but for defendants with the worst lawyers. It doesn't apply to people with money. When is the last time a wealthy person was on death row, let alone executed?

The death penalty doesn't necessarily help families of murder victims. Murder victim family members across the country argue that the drawn-out death penalty process is painful for them and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative.

Problems with speeding up the process. Over 50 of the innocent people released from death row had already served over a decade. If the process is speeded up we are sure to execute an innocent person.

Answer 3

Buddhism DoesTeach Respect for all Sentient Beings A Sentient Being is any Being that can perceive At the time of writing this is every life form on the Planet apart from a plant [A plant doesn't have a mind obviously ] We believe as we have been taking rebirth since beginningless time and each and every Being has at some time has been our Mother One of the five Grave Offenses is to Kill ones Mother We also believe every Sentient Being has Buddha Nature This potential to become Buddha's Themselves in some future time Another Grave Offense is to kill a Buddha Yes there is our First Precept Not to Kill I hope You would agree Using the above advice a Buddhist could come to the conclusion To deliberately take a life is an unwholesome act May This Help

Answer 4

I don't believe a truly "civilized" society would include death as an option to any problem except, perhaps, extreme suffering, i.e. euthanasia. Violence in general would not be promoted.

I'm not sure we necessarily need to take the civilized stance on the issue. I don't, however, know how any one person can pass that judgment over another. Who are we to end the existence of another human being? I think I still support the death penalty, though, as a deterrent to others and population control. I don't know that we have to be the ideal society to be a good society. Perhaps someday we will come up with a better option.

Answer 5

Hmmmm....the civilised position is:

Execution is wrong BUT

Carpet bombing/ cluster bombs are just fine and dandy.
Democracy is needed in Iraq....so long as it's headed by a leader of America's choosing. Whereas we don't need the right to peaceful within the square half mile of the Houses of Parliament in the UK. And we clearly don't require a democratically elected leader Britain for the next 2 years.

Failure in Afghanistan and Iraq is "not an option" but opium production in Afghanistan is at an all time high. Osama bin Laden has the most expensive search party after him while people on our streets starve.

The civilised position on capital punishment is just hypocrisy.

Answer 6

I used to be anti-death because I was catholic and I thought it was wrong. Now? I don't seem to have a position. It seems to be pro-death if it's someone who was heinous and the facts of the case enraged me, but I'm not sure I've completely worked out my moral stance on it.

Answer 7

Life should be revered, always, but some individuals are broken, and can't be fixed. Unless they can be isolated PERMANENTLY with no further cost or chance of ever presenting a danger to society, they must be eliminated for the greater good.

I think a deserted island is the perfect solution. If they live, they live, if not, so sorry.

Answer 8

The CIVILIZED approach would be to have no death penalty. Forget that.

Let us understand that the Death Penalty does NOT deter crime; never has.

All the Death Penaly offers is a chance for vengeance and closure that a morally reprehensible person is no longer amongst us

Answer 9

It depends, on whether you are meaning civilized to be governed by law, or if it is governed by a concept of ethics and\or morality.

If it's a concept of ethics, then, a civilization can't execute a murderer. That civilization has as little right to take a killers life, as that killer had no right to take another's life. However, be aware that this road leads to an ending of prisons, for, if society has no right to take a life outright, then, it also has no right to take pieces or chunks of a persons life.

Society, as a basis of law, has the right to take life, and a right to take parts of a persons life away from them...The purpose o law is to protect the citizen, you have a right to life, to possessions, and a reasonable expectation of being safe. When a lawbreaker causes injury, removes your possessions, or takes your life, they have taken from you what society's laws were created to protect. This has with it a penalty, which is felt to be commensurate with the wrong that was committed.

Since they have broken society's laws, they are removed from that society for a period of time, and, in the instance of murder, are permanently removed from society, by a method equal to the crime performed.

It really all depends on how you define civilized.

Answer 10

The civilized position on the death penalty is that it is wrong, and thus needs to be abolished.

Answer 11

We know there is no escaping death. Thus I see nothing wrong with an eye for an eye etc. BUT, living is harder than dying, so capital punishment may be a mixed blessing.