Category Ethics

Against the Death Penalty

I was angered by the executions of eight prisoners recently by Indonesia. I’ve been strongly opposed to the death penalty my entire life; it was the very first political issue I took a position on, and though many of my other political views are in a state of flux I am practically certain that this one won’t change.

The thought that these people were shot through the heart – deliberately and permanently destroyed after ten years of successful rehabilitation for a stupid mistake is deeply sickening, and I fail to see how anyone could be content about it. However, many people seem to have no problem with what happened, and I’ve read various defenses of the killings. I’ll briefly deal with the main ones.

The Hypocrisy Paradox

  “Hypocrisy” has two, similar, main meanings. The first is claiming (directly or indirectly) to adhere to some moral standard that one…