Desirability of Capital Punishment Where Murder Is the Offence
The debate as to the desirability of capital punishment has raged on for
a number of years with a number of legal jurisdictions (like the
European Union ) abandoning it completely while some (like some
constituent states of the United States of America and much of the
developing world ) retaining it . The arguments on both sides do not lack
quantum or quality and this paper seeks to analyze the desirability of
capital punishment with regard to offences where murder has been the
crime .
Judging from a very neutral and ethical point of view , one can find a
useful starting point in the words of Jeremy Bentham and his ethical
theory called utilitarianism when he states that `Nature has placed
mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters , pain and
pleasure . It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do , as well
as to determine what we shall do . On the one hand , the standard of right
and wrong , on the other hand the chain of cause and effects , are
fastened to their throne (Lawhead , 27 . What flows from this argument
is then the notion that human beings should aim for maximizing pleasure
and avoiding pain so as to increase the collective happiness of society .
In light of the above , where murder has been committed , there exists an
insurmountable amount of pain within society . Here the death penalty
serves...