Question

Short Assignment 2 (SA 2): Your work: Please produce about 250-350 word work (about one page long, double spaced) arguing against the argument below. Your work may be presented in the paragraph-writing format, or in a bullet point format. Please appeal to Kant’s or/and Utilitarian claims (learned from your readings and class discussions) to support your points. Please argue against the argument provided to you, regardless of what you really think about the death penalty (please do not offer any support for the death penalty). The aim of this assignment is to practice how to use Kant’s and Utilitarian principles in a moral debate. a) If you argue against the argument below without any appeal to Kant’s and Utilitarian principles, you will not get a full credit for your work. b) If you argue against the death penalty problem in general, instead of debating the argument below, you will not get a full credit for your work. * Do not write any introduction. Write straight to the point. * Your work should not be longer than 1 page of text (double spaced) Pro Death Penalty Argument (Retentionist Argument): Premise 1) If we keep the death penalty, we run the risk of needlessly eradicating the lives of convicted murderers who might have been reformable (correctable). Premise 2) If we abolish the death penalty we run the risk of some innocent people becoming future victims of the murderers (for example, the prison guards). Premise 3) Whether we choose to keep the death penalty or abolish it, there is a risk that some human lives will be needlessly lost. Premise 4) We have no right to risk (endanger) lives of the innocent people. Conclusion 5) Therefore, it is our moral obligation to retain (keep) the death penalty. ***TIP: Premise (1) supports your assignment; you do not need to debate this point. Due day: Monday Week 5.

Answer 1

Death penalty has always been a controversial issues since it got started and personally I feel against it. There are certain reasons behind this opinion and let me discuss all of them one by one:

• There are various instances in which the convict is actually innocent and has been under sentence due to certain wrong judgement or manipulation done by the lawyers through certain misleading evidences. In these cases, death penalty leads to the end of life of an innocent.
• According to Kantian ethics, those actions are moral which are felt right by our own conscience and we can perceive something as right when we will accept it to be happening to us. In this regard, I feel that there are various situational factors which may lead to a person committing some heinous crime leading to a death penalty. We can't justify the crime but we need to understand various factors behind it like the criminal's childhood, his attachment patterns and other personality and environmental factors. Thus, I guess I would like if these criminals gets assessed and they are being healed from their aggresive and impulsive mental states. Thus, I don't find death penalty the right punishment in regards to Kantian perspectives.
• According to Utilitarianism, those actions can be called good or moral which will eventually lead to a high level of good for a lot of people concerned. In the context of death penalty, the death of the criminal only favours the venegeant mental state of the victim's family and also serves as an assumption that these actions will induce fear in the minds of other criminals. In reality, statistics shows no such application of induced fear after a death penalty and on the other hand, crimes goes on increasing. Thus, if we would have had healed the criminal and made him work for the law or police department by doing certain works which he or she is good at then it will beneficial for most people. The department will get an increased support and the criminal will also get some financial help by doing these works. When the criminal will be working for the department, he or she can also be kept under observation and thus, further crimes can always be avoided. By helping the criminal and addressing him with respect will also induce sense of prosocial behaviour in him and that will eventually benefit a lot more people than death penalty. Thus, with respect to Utilitarianism, I stand against the concept of death penalty.