REVISION: PHILOSOPHY Moral Ethics Term Paper

Global Ethics

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The world consists of a considerable number of nations each of which has its own and unique culture that influences different areas of social life, making a person follow a path that is accepted by the society. Ethics are formed on the basis of cultural perspectives and lead to the necessity of global conversation and compromise. It would be important to consider the issue of death penalty and various points of view on it in different countries as well as consider factors that might contribute to collision of contradicting points of view.

First of all it would be particularly useful to define some of the key terms that will be used to describe this issue. Thus, capital punishment is the notion that describes a situation when the government authorizes putting a criminal to death with the help of one of different procedures. This contradicts with the universal right to life which suggests that no other person or entity is entitled to take it away since this action would be beyond the boundaries of legal or moral power.

From the historical point of view, death penalty has not been present in all the countries of the world; so, it would be particularly beneficial to exchanges experience and work out a consensus. Indeed, there are states which have implemented punishment capital punishment throughout their history for several decades. That is why it is simply not logical to ask them to stop the practice that has been around for a considerable amount of time. No wonder that the authorities would oppose this idea and defend its legal system from the external intrusion. So, it is quite understandable that any changed that are supposed to be introduced in this area will not be implemented at once or in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, it is almost impossible to find a country that has not featured death penalty in its history. However, there is an impressive number of examples when predecessors of the modern states, including some super powers, avoided using capital punishment when all the neighboring countries used it actively. For example, Kievan Rus did adopt a lot of rules and regulations from the Byzantine Empire, but none that concerned the issue in question. Even nowadays, in the Russian Federation, death penalty is possible is not likely to be applied to a person. Finally, the modern trend that can be witnessed at the present moment shows that countries are willing to get rid of capital punishment inside of their legislature, no matter for how long it has been it has been practiced (Hood & Hoyle, 2009, 1). This is a very important fact that should be carefully considered, since it shows that countries all over the world want to change the ways that they used to follow. Obviously this contributes to global conversation and reaching an agreement.

Speaking of another aspect of capital punishment, namely its direct relationship to the spiritual as well as moral traditions that has been practiced in the area for a long time, one is able to mention that cultures can be divided in to two groups, based on these criteria. Thus, there are cultural environments that are considered to be relatively aggressive and favored taking lives: whether it was enemies or criminals. For example, sharia, the religious law that is used in the Arab countries, stipulated that a thief should undergo the punishment that would cut his hand of for the crime that he has committed. As can be vividly seen on this peculiar example, there is no wonder in that death penalty would be implemented to people who have commit crimes that are even worse. On the other hand, some cultures hold that life of a person is the most precious thing, so it would be more beneficial to replace death penalty with a certain sum of money that should be paid for the deceased person. This way the state was able to save the population from the inevitable reduction. Nowadays, this experience may be utilized and promoted, encouraging the countries all over the world spare its citizens. The trace of this human loving approach to justice may be seen even in the modern legislation. Thus, this is a general practice in the majority of countries that juveniles that are sentenced to death are usually saved from it and receive a life time sentence instead (Abrams, 2013, 738). Indeed, this may be used as a valid basis for reaching an agreement between the countries and producing a unified approach to this issue.

Since the impact of extensive use of death penalty on the population of a country is undeniable, it would not be a mistake to say that implementation of it is more likely to happen in countries that are highly populated; so this aspect should also be considered when thinking about the issue on a global scale. If one will examine the experience of the countries that feature numerous population, like China or India, one will be able to see that death penalty in them is perceived in a much different way than in the states that have lesser population. The reason might probably be in the fact that in those cases the government wanted to influence people who were thinking or committing a crime. Indeed, the use of capital punishment may have an impact on the population, deterring it from making certain type of crimes (Harcourt, 2011, 64). On the other hand, loss of a single person may be regarded as a dramatic effect in case the population of a country is quite small. In spite of the fact that there are countries that still have capital punishment and the population of which consists only of several millions of people, the general trend shows that states tend to think about the future of its people and avoid implementation of this kind of punishment. One of the main ideas that should be promoted when considering the issue of capital punishment suggests that it should not be used as some kind of measure to control the population. The fact that a country features a considerable number of people does not make them less valuable in any sense. That is why executing a person in an overpopulated country and in a country that populated less densely is rather same, despite the objections of statistics.

What is also important when considering the issue in question is that the practice of death penalty as well as its abolishment is largely amplified by the place that the state occupies in the world arena. Indeed, there is a handful of states in the world that are considered to be the most influential ones within the boundaries of the region that they belong to. That is why if they practice capital punishment, the public might think that it is acceptable. In spite of the fact that some countries have reserved it for the most dangerous offences, some states apply it to much less serious cases. It is obvious that death penalty is not suitable for a shoplifter, but certain countries it consider this kind of punishment to be suitable for crimes that are dealt with less stricter almost in any country in the world (Saunders, 2010, 162). On the other hand, if some kind of a small island country which can hardly be find on the world map and which does not have a profound influence on the world politics exercises capital punishment, the public would express few concern about it, suggesting that that state is not civilized enough to get rid of death penalty. However, this is a very wrong approach to the issue, since the value of life of a person is not diminished by the country in which one resides. In other world, if the world would like to abolish capital punishment, it should be abolished in every country in the world, regardless big or small it is.

When it comes to considering the issue of death penalty it should be stated that the way in which it is implements plays an important role for the whole notion, since dying is a biological process while killing is much more complicated one. Thus, there is a practice of lethal injection that is considered to be one of the most humane ways to kill a criminal, since it is not associated with any pain because of the use of anesthetic. In spite of the fact that the psychological stress may not be eased in this situation, the amount of pain that a person has to go through is reduced significantly if compared to other ways of executing (Fraser, 2008, 395). Contrary to that, there may be ways to implement capital punishment that will not only be extremely painful, but also quite humiliating in the eyes of the public. For example, a certain kind of execution may be traditionally reserved for the most disgraced criminals. So, any person who is killed in this way for whatever crime will be considered to be killed in a very disgraceful way. Thus, this might be the ultimate humiliation for former leader to a country to be executed as a thief, for example. In any case, it should be noted that death penalty may not be regarded as some kind of retaliation from the government. The fact that a person is killed as a tragedy, no matter who the executioner is: another person or a governmental official. That is why it would be free of any emotions in case it has to be implemented.

Finally, the fact that capital punishment is or in not used in a certain country greatly influences its image and the way it is perceived in the world; so, this might be a good way to promote abolishment of death penalty if the image of countries that have already done that is considered to be extremely positive. For example, the countries that are included in the European Union have abolished the used of capital punishment, showing that they would like to adopt the role of progressive states of the world. In other words, criminals will feel that in case they commit something within the boundaries of the states that were mentioned above, their crime will be judged objectively. On the other hand, the example of China shows that the government there tries to affect is population and reduce the number of crime with the help of rather drastic measures. However, there is no statistics saying that the number of executions is falling. It is highly probable that the situation is quite the opposite. So, the image of this country is only worsening. That is why it is important to keep in mind that the public opinion may be uses as an effective leverage that might push a country towards abandoning the practice of capital punishment, giving its additional points of respect in the eyes of the world.

Having examined the issue from different points of view, it would be important to state that mutual understanding of different cultures, especially on such a controversial topic as death penalty is possible only in case there is an effective dialog between them. The evidence that is presented in the paper shows that the issue in question should be carefully viewed in different dimensions which are often rather unexpected ones. However, it is particularly valuable to keep in mind that every party that is involved in the discussion may hold a different, sometimes even contradicting opinion about the issue which is conditioned by the history, traditions, attitude towards life of a person and many other factors.

References

Abrams, L. S. (2013). Juvenile Justice at a Crossroads: Science, Evidence, and Twenty-First Century Reform. Social Service Review, 87(4), 725-752 .

Fraser, N. (2008). Abnormal Justice. Critical Inquiry, 34(3), 393-422.

Harcourt, B. E. (2011). An Institutionalization Effect: The Impact of Mental Hospitalization and Imprisonment on Homicide in the United States, 1934–2001. The Journal of Legal Studies, 40(1), 39-83.

Hood, R., & Hoyle, C. (2009). Abolishing the Death Penalty Worldwide: The Impact of a “New Dynamic”. Crime and Justice, 38(1), 1-63.

Saunders, B. (2010). Democracy, Political Equality, and Majority Rule. Ethics, 121(1), 148-177.