Death Penalty and the Utilitarian Aspect of Ethics
The debate on death penalties or capital punishment should adopt a quantitative assessment on how much good and justice in the quantitative aspect is attained at the end of its institution and administration. This quantitative assessment of capital punishment should follow the utilitarianism principles put forth by John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. In the views of these two philosophers, the assessment of the moral worth of any undertaking, (such legalizing and administering death penalties) should be determined by its relative worth or usefulness in comparison to potential alternatives to the action (Mill 91).
Thus the moral questions that we should ask ourselves with regard to capital punishment are: Does capital punishment offer the highest utility in delivering justice to the victims and society? In wrongful convictions, how can the government or society ever ensure justice as a utility when the convicted is already dead, but proven to have been innocent? Such an outcome is totally non-utilitarian because it serves out injustice instead of justice, because the outcomes of wrongful conviction and administration of capital punishment serve no utility or justice (Bachour 27).
As explained earlier in my essay, at times innocent people get death penalties for wrongful convictions. But when exonerating evidence is uncovered later, the state finds that it has little it can do to provide justice and compensation for a life taken. In such instances its utility in offering justice and protection to the innocent fails and it compromises its role.
Therefore, from a utilitarian perspective, capital punishment is not moral. However, the administration of justice under the recommended steps of allowing prisoners to work for the benefit of their victims, state and their families serves more utility, because they are able to give back to society under life imprisonment instead of taking more during the execution of capital punishment which is very expensive.
Therefore, capital punishment should be avoided and if possible done away with because its outcomes little utility to the society, victims, families and the state (Bachour 31). The ultimate question here should: How much good or positive result does capital punishment yield in relation to its alternatives? Answering this question defines whether it has utility and importance or not.
References
Bachour, Bana. Capital punishment and utilitarianism: AmericanUniversity of Beirut. 2008. Retrieved on 3rd May 2011 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/3174449/Capital-Punishment-and-Utilitarianism, 2008. Web
Mill, S. John. Utilitarianism: Easy-read Large Edition. ReadHowYouWant.com, 2006, print
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