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Utilitarianist View On Capital Punishment

816 Words4 Pages

Ben Strauch
Professor Fleming
January 16, 2016
A Utilitarianist View on Benefits of Capital Punishment The main topic that we covered in week 2 classes was the idea of utilitarianism. The book defines utilitarianism as, “an ethical theory that holds that an action is right if it produces, or if it tends to produce, the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people offed by the action. Otherwise the action is wrong.” Having gone to Catholic school my whole life(kindergarten through high school) capital punishment has been a popular key discussions. Not only is this issue just coming up in religious organizations, but it seems to me that almost every time someone is sentenced to death, the news channels bring up the debate as to whether it is right or wrong. I plan to discuss a utilitarianism approach/thinking on this issue. …show more content…

The killing of anyone can not bring any good to anyone involved. In fact the Ten Commandments, the laws that are of the utmost importance for Christians, even states “You shall not murder.” A utilitarianist needs to sit down and consider the consequences of an action, and choose the one that produces the greatest amount of good. Having heard arguments to capital punishment my whole life pretty much, I could come up with two main arguments that a utilitarianist would have as to why capital punishment might be

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