Death Penalty

hello seattle. wrote:why kill people who kill people to show people that killing people is wrong?

This is exactly my philosophy, Jack!

It wouldn't change my opinion if someone killed my family- it just gives them the chance to die for what they did, which is really hypocritical. I honestly just think that the death penalty is one big hypocrisy.

What I have an issue with, is the way that people can be so vehemently against the death penalty, while giving the thumbs up to practices like euthanasia and abortion. Sure, they are separate issues. But they come down to the same primary theme of deliberately taking human life.
How can you treat other lives with such disregard, and justify it? The only way is to create subjective rules, ones like 'what the individual wants is right and more important than anything else' or 'its okay as long as there is no emotion / pain / consciousness ' Seriously, it's unfair discrimination plain and simple. We are valuing certain humans as 'ok' to be killed. Babies still in the womb, it's ok to kill them (currently the law is that as long as the head is in the womb it can be aborted). Or people who declare they want to die of their own free will, they can be killed. They are humans and their lives are equal to ours.

If you believe that the death penalty is irrevocably, unequivocally, morally wrong (regardless of popular belief / law / example), on the grounds that it is the deliberate taking of life, then you have to at least seriously contemplate the consistency of your beliefs if you do not have the same attitude towards those other policies.

I'm gonna stray a bit to what he's talking about.
Abortion is done before they're born, so technically, they aren't alive. Plus, most of us are saying the death penalty should be abolished forever because it's the government basically saying "we do what we want and we can get away with it" and we all think it's an eye for an eye. It's just a stupid way to put things into a perspective where you compare euthanasia and abortion to the death penalty because it's not like you're euthanizing or aborting something that did something to another person.

You're right, in that perspective they're totally different issues. And most of you are probably in that perspective, so sorry about that. I wasn't trying to argue that though, and you should be trying to see my point (which is relevant enough that abortion is being mentioned in a topic titled 'death penalty').

You raised a separate point though, that babies are technically not alive until they come out of the woman's womb???
Surely you don't believe that? I mean, this is precisely the kind of subjective rubbish that angers me. A baby with fingers, toes, a beating heart, and a functioning brain, upon leaving the womb turns into something that it was not?
Do you believe this just because the law says so? Remember, this is the same law that justifies the death penalty... And many other things which exploit the poor and the voiceless.
One of my main points is that equality is necessary and of utmost importance. The law should uphold equality and fairness, regardless of gender, race, etc... abortion clearly does not honour this principle. It is discrimination by age.

Interestingly enough, the Nazi regime implemented similar justifications upon their extermination of Jews, declaring them as non human 'parasites'.

I don't mean everyone in the world, I mean most of the people on ~IAR.

social ghost. wrote:

The Dancing Pirate wrote:We all think it's an eye for an eye. It's just a stupid way to put things into a perspective

Some people believe in an eye for an eye.
It's just their belief system.
You can't really assume everyone thinks it's stupid.

it is a belief system and people do believe in it.
...but are you saying it's okay to do that?

Personally, I believe that some acts in life committed against other human beings are unforgivable. In my opinion, some people (i.e. murders, serial rapists, and the like) don't deserve a second chance at life.

And I don't believe that abortion is anywhere near on topic for a conversation on the death penalty. But yet again, just my opinion.

Im against the death penalty. Taking another life isnt going to do anything good.
They have families too. And even though they may have done something so despicable to deserve the death penalty, im sure thier families will care for them.
Also like other people have said its just another way for the government to say that they are above/better than us, and above the law themselves wich is ridiculous.
But say i was in the position of someone with a life sentance.
And going by Mikeys post about the prison heirachy say i was convicted of Child molestation. The lowest of the lowest.
I would rather the death penalty than live the rest of my life being raped and abused in prison. So then i try to kill myself but the government stop me. (i know this happed somewhere once)
I believe we have no right to take someone elses life, and we have a right to live, but why dont we have to right to end our own lives?
A bit off topic. But if i was convicted of that i would rather the death penalty than a life in prison.
idk im rambling, im still against the Death Penalt and abortion, its still murder no matter what angle you look at it.