Date sent: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 22:28:13 -0800 From: Paul Hughes <planetp@aci.net> Organization: Planet P To: extropians@extropy.com Subject: Re: "Is the death penalty Extropian?" Send reply to: extropians@extropy.com
> Brian D Williams wrote:
>
> > But what about the victim?
> >
> > Since I believe the only current possibility of life after death
> > involves cryonics, the debt owed the victim is infinite.
> >
> > I postulate that the death penalty is the only just solution for
> > the unlawful and malicious nonrecoverable termination of a fellow
> > human being.
>
> Either you are hallucinating or you know of some 'magical' technology
> I'm unaware of. Since when is killing a persons murderer capable of
> resurrecting the deceased? Since I don't of any such device, killing
> someone will *not* bring the dead back to life. So how is this 'death
> penalty' even beginning to pay the debt to the victim? They are dead!
> It may feel good to exercise your savage lust for vengeance. But it is
> neither rational or just, let alone extropian. It is vengeance pure and
> simple.
>
> Otherwise, please demonstrate how the death penalty will pay back this
> infinite debt to the victim (since they are already dead), and how it is
> anything other than an acting out of ones need for vengeance.
>
> Paul Hughes
Not uite; there's also the matter of deterrence involved. Executing a murderer may not deter anyone else from murdering, but it definitely and absolutely deters the murderer. A dead murderer will never kill
again. Joe