Should the Death Penalty be Reintroduced in South Africa?

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The biggest issue facing the reintroduction of the death penalty into South Africa is a simple issue of morality. Most argue that it is not moral to take human life, as life is the ultimate gift. However, if human life is the ultimate gift, it should have the ultimate protection. Thus one can conclude that taking a human life is indeed the ultimate crime. In order to deter the ultimate crime does it not make sense to deploy the ultimate protection, the ultimate protection being the death penalty.Thus begs the question, is it morally unjustifiable to take a life in order to save another or in order to protect others? Generally the answer would be no.
The modern form of the death penalty is not a barbaric form of a justice system; there are constantly various legislations and policies being introduced in order to ensure fair convictions. While minimising the deaths of innocent people through convictions. For example, In February 1997,the American Bar Association called fora suspension on executions, until policies could be instituted which insured that death penalty cases are fairly administered according to due processes . What the death penalty serves to do is provide the ultimate form of protection of human life, by deterring potential criminals in taking a life. Ernest Van Den Haag simply argues, “ Miscarriage of justice does not warrant the abolition of the death penalty”. He further argues that in daily human activities, such as driving a car, air travel and war, there are deaths of innocent people. However those activities are not considered morally unjust, because their benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. Hence the same analogy can be used to justify why Capital punishment is moral.
Con Death penalty: Death penalty go...

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...au, H. A. (1992). The Case Against The Death Penalty. Retrieved april 11, 2014, from RCN D.C Metro: http://users.rcn.com/mwood/deathpen.html
Haag, E. V. (1983). For the Death Penalty. New York Times.
Omar, D. (1997, December 11). SPEECH BY MINISTER OF JUSTICE, DULLAH OMAR: WHY CAPITAL PUNISHMENT CANNOT BE BROUGHT BACK. Retrieved April 10, 2014, from Government: http://www.gov.za/speeches/1998
Oppenheim, S. (2001). Capital Punishment in the United States. Retrieved April 10, 2014, from Washington College of Law: http://www.wcl.american.edu/hrbrief/spring98/html/death.html
Stevenson, B. (2004). Death Penalty. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from ProCon.org: http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002000
Vanberg, V. (2000). Constitutional Economics and Ethics. Retrieved April 10, 2014, from publicchoice: http://publicchoice.info/Buchanan/files/vanberg.htm

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