Thanks for the response driveway.
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Originally Posted by driveway
I'll see if I can explain why I disagree.
First of all, there is the simple "Batman" reasoning that lowering oneself to kill a murderer makes one also a murderer. In the case of capital punishment it would be the whole of society lowering itself to the same level as the murderer.
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Why can't we distinguish between murdering an innocent member of society, and executing a murderous wretch who has proven he/she does not value the lives of others? I can see one act being much lower on the morality scale than the other.
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Originally Posted by driveway
Secondly, murder and capital punishment are, like war, incredibly lazy. Instead of seeking solutions to a problem, the decision is made to simply remove the problem. This is lazy and does nothing to advance our civilization, something that I think we should be striving for.
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What you call lazy, I would call efficient. In our twisted system right now, monsters such as Paul Bernardo and Clifford Olsen are still able to reach out and inflict further pain on the families of the victims. IMO, they are weeds that need to be pulled before their poision spreads. That in itself helps to advance the civilization.
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Originally Posted by driveway
Thirdly and most importantly, if capital punishment is allowed, then the message is sent that, in some cases, it is acceptable to kill another person. If society says it's okay to kill a murderer, or let's say a child-rapist, then why isn't it okay for a grieving parent to kill that same person, who would have been killed by the state anyway? Once that door is opened, it becomes very hard to close. If the bar is set at zero, if the agreed upon standard is that it is never acceptable to kill another person, then those gray areas are eliminated.
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How many fathers would resort to vigilante justice knowing the perpetrator faces the death penalty?
I was serious about the penal colony. I would see this as a great compromise in the capital punishment debate. Let murderers and rapists live amongst and rehabilitate themselves.