The Death Penalty

The Ultimate Punishment: A Defense“The severity and finality of the death penalty is appropriate to the seriousness and the finality of murder,” said Ernest van den Haag in this article. He believes that the capital punishment of the death penalty is well justified by the act that was done by the murderer. He states that in committing the murder the murderer already knows the consequences that come along with the crime so he should be punished for his actions. Thus, it is just for the government to keep capital punishment in order to try to deter the murder rate and its justification is made upon the simple fact that they know the consequences.

In his article “The Ultimate Punishment: A Defense,” van den Haag states that the death penalty is needed to lower crime rate and that it is a just punishment for the murderer. He talks about how the murderer knew that he faced the capital punishment when he committed the crime so he should have thought about it before he did it.

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That the murderer himself knew the risk so if he did not want to end up facing the death penalty then he shouldn’t have committed the crime to begin with. Haag also mentions how the punishment is set there to protect the potential victims of the crime and as a threat to the potential murderers. In this defense, he states that many men abstain themselves from committing murder in fear that they will face this kind of punishment. He supports the death penalty and even if there are a few faults he agrees that the benefits will outweigh these miscarriages.

In response, the capital punishment has many counter attacks due to fact that it is a very controversial issue. Other philosophers argue against the...