Missie Bishop
English Composition II
Essay 4 Final Paper
December 09, 2004
Legal Murder
In John Kavanaugh's essay "Capital Punishment is Unjust", Kavanaugh discusses different reasons that we as a society may have for legally killing people by means of the death penalty. He begins by depersonalizing the human by saying that those who believe in the death penalty do not value a person as being expendable. They only think of the person as a murderer or other form of criminal. Kavanaugh believes we must all answer to a higher authority but this higher authority says "thou shalt not kill." In the event that there is a higher value that provides exception to the rule "thou shalt not kill" Kavanaugh believes that his is" a subtle killing of ethics itself. For in killing persons, the foundation of moral experience is itself violated" (par.8).
Kavanaugh then begins to explain his reasoning as to why he believes intentional killing is unethical. He not only speaks of the......
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Approximate Word Count: 1313
Approximate Pages: 6 (260 words per double-spaced page) |