Capital punishment, or the execution of a criminal, was once a common activity throughout the world. It became ordinary in the Middle Ages and was inflicted for a large number of crimes. Because the methods used then, such as burning at the stake and slow strangulation, were not democratic, capital punishment slowly died. It returned, however, with methods such as lethal injection and the electric chair. Many people believe these methods are not democratic either; therefore, some states are declaring capital punishment as illegal. The ethical issues facing this process are numerous, but the costs to our society without it are even greater. In the next few paragraphs I will prove that capital punishment is more suitable than life in prison and the oppositions to it, such as the ethicality, religion, and cruel and unusual punishment laws, can easily be dismissed.

Each year in the United States three hundred people are given the death sentence, but of those three hundred only fifty or sixty are actually executed (Eckholm A1). In Anger and Ambivalence, free lance writer David Kaplan of

Newsweek says that, the rare inmate to die hangs on close to ten years before meeting th

penalty, resulting in thousands of inmates stuck on death row. These judges fear one of the rare cases where the inmate is innocent, but receives execution. The questions dealing with capital punishment must be answered and the system must be sped up.

death penalty should be legalized throughout the United States.

Opposing Aristotle's view is another great philosopher, Immanuel Kant. Immanuel Kant is a deontological ethicist who believes in duty based ethics. Using his philosophies, you have to put yourself in the

e executioner (24). Over the years capital punishment has become a long and tedious process involving unnecessary court cases and thousands of appeals. Many judges are afraid of seeking the death

Since I have already proven, through economical issues and shortened sentences, that life in prison is a bad option, I will now prove capital punishment does not violate the cruel and unusual punishment laws. The most common method used in the death penalty is lethal injection. In using this method, two intravenous lines filled with saline solution, which contains drugs that put the criminal in a deep sleep, are started in each of the inmate's arms. After the inmate enters the deep sleep, the drugs cause the inmate to stop breathing and die (Lethal

The right we, as citizens, start with to belong to a community is not unconditional; it is more of a privilege. When one person in a community interferes with another's right to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, he/she invalidates his/her right to belong to the community. Life is precious and every member has a right to experience it to the fullest, but, to do so, we have to honor each other's rights. When someone commits a crime worthy of the death penalty, he/she has interfered with another's rights. The death penalty can be used as punishment for the sake of maintaining the community whose foundation has been

Continuing, capital punishment can easily be proven to be ethically right. One of the greatest ethicists of all time is Aristotle. Although he may have opposed capital punishment, his ideas promoted it. Aristotle believes that moral virtue is habituated. His ideas show that stricter laws need to be enforced to make people more noble in character. If the death penalty were more strictly enforced, people would be more noble in character. Aristotle's philosophies also state that once a virtue is made lawful, it will not be painful; therefore, if the death penalty is strictly enfor

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Approximate Word count = 1679
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)