Quote:
Originally posted by Lady Sidhe
But you know what? That abuse didn't lead me to kill. I didn't decide all men were like that and therefore needed to die. Ultimately, it's not our childhood. It's the choices we make. As grown men and women, we have the option of making our own choices in behavior. I'm not going to justify my behavior by blaming it on something that happened when I was a kid, and I'm not going to accept it from a murderer.
Sidhe
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I can only offer my respect and support for coming through such an ordeal without loosing your sense of reason, as happens in so many cases. There is an overwhelming trend to base actions (and reactions) on past experiences so forgive me for assuming your pro dp stance is entirely emotional and rooted in past conflict. If you have succeeded in objectivising the argument and still believe in 'eye for an eye', I cannot then argue this is an irrational response resulting from years of undeserved abuse.
So what then do I argue? We have already agreed that:
- past experience/abuse is no excuse for killing
- it is disproportionately expensive to keep them alive
- the act of murder is dehumanising (although I cannot concede to 'subhuman' - they are still physiologically, technically and literally human beings)
- a killers 'worth' is questionable
Aside from the economical factor (which I believe is callous and should not take precedence in this argument), the above statements are all condemnations of the act of killing - and are not automatically a valid advocation for our right to terminate. We are all in agreement here that killing, particularly the brutal cases you refer to, is abhorrent and intolerable. Where we differ in opinion is that it is right to take their life 'in return'. You may argue the above as justification - and you may be quite right - why should an abuser, a torturer, a killer - deserve to live? Maybe they don't. But that they
deserve it is not a good enough reason to act upon it. That hypothesis underpins our justice system - a culture of punishment, not of
response. I do not feel that committing a person to death is a response to their crime. I do not have the breadth of experience or knowledge to suggest an appropriate response. I do know that some things in this life lie beyond our power of expression, that sometimes a feeling so strong although not 'proven' should be acknowledged - and this I feel most strongly about. No one has the right to kill, no matter whether it is deserved. It is cyclical, endless and irresolvable.