Writer's Block: Capital offense
Jul. 16th, 2010 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gonzai[Error: unknown template qotd]
Tough one. Do I believe there are people who, because of their actions, have forfeited the right to continue living in society? Yes. Definitely. Can I determine with specificity who those people are? No. And no one else can make that determination either. One person may feel that nothing short of genocide warrants the death penalty, while another (and indeed we do have some societies that are close to this) may believe looking at someone the wrong way is a capital offense. Every person will have a different view of where the line falls. Something as final as death deserves absolute certainty, and there's no such thing as absolute certainty.
Tough one. Do I believe there are people who, because of their actions, have forfeited the right to continue living in society? Yes. Definitely. Can I determine with specificity who those people are? No. And no one else can make that determination either. One person may feel that nothing short of genocide warrants the death penalty, while another (and indeed we do have some societies that are close to this) may believe looking at someone the wrong way is a capital offense. Every person will have a different view of where the line falls. Something as final as death deserves absolute certainty, and there's no such thing as absolute certainty.
