Hammurabi Code Dbq

Hammurabi's Code was a collection of codes or guidelines of which the people of

Mesopotamia back during the Bronze age followed religiously. This collection of laws is most

famous for it's efficiency due to it's level of harshness and simplicity. Although there are many

laws, some very specific, within Hammurabi's Code; the main essential principle to take from it

is "an eye for an eye." This means that if a life is taken, another is taken in return. In the event of

theft, the thief must compensate for what he took and more. Even though this may seem like a

barbaric way of handling heinous acts to modern society, the truth of the matter is that it was

effective. The people that lived during the Bronze age were people of a simpler

time.

The laws were set to be very harsh for a specific reason, in most cases the perpetrator

ends up being condemned to death. This reason is to make it clear to everyone that lived in

Mesopotamia during the Bronze age that if they were to be caught committing a crime,

Hammurabi's Code was to ensure that he or she will never want to repeat it again or rather not

have the will to in some cases. In today's society, Hammurabi's Code would be deemed

ineffective and barbaric. However, there was some level of efficiency to the code. When a crime

happens in today's society, the post-actions taken on the perpetrator might not be adequately fit

for the crime committed. Another issue today is that there is a huge tendency for several crimes

to be repeated by the same person or other people. By adopting the Hammurabi's Code main

principle of "an eye for an eye", this would solve many of the crimes that are committed today.

Additionally, the 215th law of the code states that "If a physician makes a large incision

with an operating knife and kills him (the patient), or open a tumor with the operating knife, and

cut out the eye, his hands shall be cut off." How is this effective? Well, for one this prevents the

physician from ever making this mistake again because in order to operate on someone the

operator would need hands to do so. Second, this puts a level of fear and motivation into the

other physicians that has heard news of this incident.

For fear of having their hands cut off from

a surgery gone astray, the physicians are now less prone to make mistakes by making sure

everyone during the operation goes correct. Imagine today's society adopting the main principle

of Hammurabi's Code. There would be a lot less repeated offenses and accidents.

The 10th law of the code states that “If the purchaser does not bring the merchant and the

witnesses before whom he bought the article, but its owner bring witnesses who identify it, then

the buyer is the thief and shall be put to death, and the owner receives the lost article.” This law

refers mainly to theft. If someone is accused of stealing an item and convicted, their punishment

is death and the owner is then awarded the item that was stolen from him or her. If today’s

society is able to adopt this doctrine, the sheer numbers of robbery and theft would go down

drastically. The reason those crimes are so often repeated today is because the punishment is not

adequate enough to fit the crime. If a thief is convicted of stealing, what is to stop him from

doing it again besides a few days in jail and a fine?

Consequently, today's society is too complex to be able to adopt Hammurabi's Code.

For

example, the code refers to carpenters and builders. There are many job titles that would fit this

description, such as: engineers, builders, architects, and contractors. Due to the ambiguity of

what a carpenter or builder is, it would be difficult to find out which person should be

responsible for the incident. Another issue for today’s society accepting the code is that some of

the issues that were stated is no longer relevant. However, the idea of adopting some forms of the

code should be considered for future use after careful editing and proofreading.