Ethics paper wk 3 final
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Apr 3, 2024
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Moral Controversy: The Death Penalty Katondra Sturdivant
Principles of Ethics
Chamberlain University
Professor Wilson
May 28, 2023
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Moral Controversy: The Death Penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned method of slaying a person as a punishment for an unforgivable offense, such as murder, usually following a tedious process that concludes whether the person is liable for violating ideals that warrants said punishment.
When thinking of the death penalty, heinous crimes come to mind that warrant the “eye for an eye” quote that is so widely used today. The death penalty is brought into the equation when penalizing a criminal that has wreaked havoc in society and is deemed to be unfit to live. There are several views on this matter and one view, in particular inequity to the individual who was annihilated by the unlawful individual if they are given life over death (LII, 2022). Pro-execution theorists also argue the need for the death penalty based on the fact that in future the fear of being executed will prevent any individual from taking the life of another one. People can live fearlessly in such a society and they will be able to contribute in full potential to the development of the society. Anti-execution theorists argue that the state or the society has no right to take the life of a murderer, which is against the law of nature and a person’s right to live. They argue that instead of giving the capital punishment, the murder should be given some other rigorous punishment. The anti-execution theorists say that by taking the life of the murderer, the society is following the murderer’s path of stealing a person of his right to live. The virtues of pardon and mercy outweigh the merits of the death penalty. The more popular view is that there should be restraints in the use of such a punishment but the abolition of the death penalty is not necessary.
An ethical egoist’s perspective regarding the death penalty is that it is moral to give capital punishment. As per ethical egoism each and every individual conduct is based on a motivation called self-interest and everything can be considered as a fair game. Ethical egoists
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view motivation as the sole determinant of morality. For them, an action is moral if the motivation is one’s self-interest. They argue that the individual who committed a crime did so out of self-interest, even if it deserves the death penalty. They would say that since an individual acts out of self-interest when killing another, then the death penalty should be equally acceptable.
The social contract ethicist argues in support of the death penalty based on the social benefits of living in a community and agreeing to follow the rules set by the community. As per the social contract, the individuals in a community agree not to kill any other individual of the community, so that all members will be safe from any such personal or family tragedy. Homicidal people, violate this social contract by their act of killing another one of the community, thus canceling the community's commitment to ensure the killer’s safety. Thus the community gets the right to take the life of the killer. As the social contract states clearly about the consequence of murder, it is ethical for the community to fulfill the terms of the contract by executing killers who violate the contract.
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References Rachels, S., & Rachels, J. (2019).
The Elements of Moral Philosophy
(9th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Legal Information Institute. (2022). Death Penalty. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/death_penalty The Ethics Centre. (2019). The Ethics of IVF. The Ethics Centre. https://ethics.org.au/the-ethics-
of-in-vitro-fertilization-ivf/
High School Bioethics Project. (2020). Reproductive Technology. NYU Grossman School of Medicine.