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I have concerns about Capital Punishment, and I also have an idea for an ethical approach to it. I live in Canada, where Capital Punishment is not practiced in our legal system, and I believe this is consistent with fair justice and protecting human rights (particularly the right to Personal Liberty, which necessarily includes the right to Bodily Autonomy). One of the immediately obvious problems with Capital Punishment is that a wrongfully convicted person becomes a victim of the system in such an extreme manner that their human rights are permanently disgregarded by way of execution (the termination of their life). Although this isn't the only reason for governments favouring Capital Punishment to consider improving how their justice systems select consequences (preferred) or punishments (less desireable) for people judged as guilty by their courts, it certainly is a relevant and compelling reason for them to have awareness of as it is certainly a far less than ideal scenario that can (and does) occur, and often for a myriad of reasons. Particularly for wrongfully convicted persons, Capital Punishment effectively imposes time-limits (a.k.a., expiry dates) which effectively impedes the avenues available to them for rectifying their situation (often with a combination of outside help, and their own research), or missing a future opportunity that arises with the discovery of newer evidence.
"Murder is not justice. There is no solace in revenge." Solution My solution is to change the way Capital Punishment works. Instead of imposing execution (terminating the convicted person's life), I recommend the following:
Consent is of paramount importance here because it means that the justice system is exhaustively protecting human rights. Without approval, the convicted person effectively serves a life sentence, which I believe, at least from both an ethical and human rights standpoint, really should be their choice. In the case of a wrongfully convicted person, this approach is certainly fair as it eliminates mandatory execution by default. |
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