Death Penalty Ethical Issues Essay

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, all these phrases are associated with the death penalty. The death penalty, a concept that has been around since the dawn of human existence, has been a controversy in recent decades in the United States, with strong support and strong disagreement. However, even though it is supported by a large amount of states, and has been found to be in the lines of the Constitution it still violates one thing, ethical reasoning. Principle of Utility assert that a concept’s actions or behaviors are right in so far as they promote happiness or pleasure, wrong as they tend to produce unhappiness or pain. The death penalty does not. With the high cost of the death penalty, the unfair litigation process, and the true

The American Bar Association, has strong convictions against the death penalty. Their reasoning is because an individual’s life could be affected by ignorance of an attorney or neglect of proper counseling. (“The Litigation Process of Capital Defendants is Unfair”) This concept is very straight and forward, since a defendant may not receive the proper litigation from an attorney, and their life, the defendant’s, is in jeopardy, this causes a large amount of unhappiness, along with physical and emotional pain and anguish. This pain and unhappiness, again directly goes against the ideas of principle of utility. Within the legal realm of the death penalty one clear proponent against the concept, the

The answer to this question is no, it is moral wrong, and does not follow the guidelines of the principle of utility. In all legal aspects of this process of the death penalty, it violates the principle consistently. From the realm of the cost aspect, the unfair representation of the prisoner, and the cruel and unusual execution methods, each creates clear and cohesive evidence that the death penalty cannot be ethically justified. If something does not inducing happiness and inflict pain to you, would you want it. No, this is the reasoning why we must cease using the death penalty, because it is not ethically