Essays on Lethal Injection

When we are talking about the death penalty, what state are we thinking about? Of course it is Texas. Everyone knows that this state is, for sure, the capital of death punishment. It got this name after numerous executions with lethal injection. As for example, we can see that the quantity of such death penalties here since 1976 includes more than five hundred cases (DPIC). First of all, this number shows us that Texas was actually a leader state for such executions. Secondly, it has the historical grounding. The first such action was taken here – on December 7, 1982 ...

In this essay I will dwell upon the issue of euthanasia. I will consider different views on this issue and discuss the contradictions that arise in relation to the use of euthanasia in different situations. I believe that passive euthanasia is possible and even desirable to alleviate the suffering of a terminally ill patient, when there is no hope to return the essential functions of his body, provided appropriate control over the lawfulness of the procedure implementation. Euthanasia is a conscious action, resulting in the death of a hopelessly ill and suffering person in a relatively quick and painless ...

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Introduction Death, as a form of punishment, is being practiced even in the earliest days of human civilization. The people of ancient Mesopotamia, during the time of Hammurabi, have been observed to perform death sentences on certain transgressions and immoral acts, as determined by their codes . Similarly, the Hebrews has also been using death as a capital punishment for several transgressions under their law. The traditional Law of Moses, which can also be read in the Christian bible, is, in fact, a relic of the age old tradition of exacting death penalty that has been practiced for ...

Death penalty, simply means the lawful implementation of an order of a court or any other public authority to kill an adult person found guilty of a capital offence; first degree murder and aggravated murder. It is a form of punishment availed to the courts or public authorities with the intention to discourage members of the public from future committal or omission of the particular offence. The methods of killing the convicted persons include hanging, gun shooting by a firing squad, electrocution, lethal injection and confinement in a gas chamber (ACLU 1). This form of punishment has proved to ...

The death penalty remains a most controversial topic not only in the ‘US but the rest of the world for many years now. It was in 1622 that the first execution took place in the United States in Virginia for a criminal in the American colonies as stated by Marcus (838). Many oppose while several others support the death penalty. What adds to the debatable issue are the process, mistakes, and costs involved. The last execution in the US took place in 2015. The paper considers all those issues related to the death penalty and if it is the ...

A 19-year-old high school girl was shot twice and buried while still alive in 1998 and Clayton Lockett was convicted of her murder (“Clayton Lockett” 1). After conviction, he was given the death penalty to be imposed by lethal injection and fifteen years later, his execution was botched when drug dosage was not adequate for death, finding veins for giving the drugs required multiple attempts, and the medications leaked into his muscle tissue (Connor). Witnesses to his death described it as agonizing and the response of the public again stirred the debate concerning using government sanctions to kill in ...

Clayton Lockett was a 38-year-old murderer of a 19-year-old girl whom he shot twice and then buried while she was still alive (Connor, 2015). Following his conviction, he was sentenced to death in Oklahoma by lethal injection. Fifteen years later in April 2014, his execution was botched when inadequate drugs, an inability to find an adequate vein for instillation, and inappropriate administration into muscle tissue resulted in an agonizing and prolonged death. The public’s response to the news releases ignited again the debate over the use of the death penalty for punishment of the worst offenders in society. ...

There is a sharp distinction between active and passive euthanasia. The former is the voluntary act of ending life or “mercy killing” while the latter is the cessation of the activities used to prolong a patient’s life. There have been strong debates concerning the moral permissibility of the active euthanasia. In this essay, I will present the arguments put forth by Rachels and Callahan concerning the issue and argue that the active voluntary euthanasia is not morally permissible. In his justification of the active voluntary euthanasia, James Rachels stands that judging from moral grounds active and passive euthanasia ...

Having looked at the PAD debate from either side of the argument, and having known what leads terminally ill patients to consider PAD, it is wise to consider whether the choices made by the terminally ill patients are worth the risk of having their lives terminated. By the time many of them are making the decision to have their lives ended, they will have made conscious and informed comparative searches and arrived at the decision to have someone help them end their lives. Many are the times when these patients are put on life- saving medical treatments without which ...

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Introduction Capital punishment is the legal remedy afforded by the state that legitimizes the punishment of death penalty for those criminals who have violated a particular law. Such method of punishment is not new. In fact, in the history of mankind, the capital punishment has been observed. Various forms of capital punishment such as stoning, burning, hanging, beheading, crucifying, etc., can be observed in various societies and cultures of the world that goes back as far as history can tell. Today, the imposition of capital punishment has survived. And though there are modern ways of taking someone’ ...

Euthanasia, widely known as mercy killing, has been a topic of debate globally. The word ‘euthanasia’ is made by the combination of two Greek words eu (well) and thanatos (death). The terms euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide or terminal sedation are sometimes used inter-changeably to define a condition wherein a lethal injection is given to patients who are extremely ill. This intentional killing is for the beneficence of pain and suffering of the patient. The ethics and legality of euthanasia have been questioned in many countries and only a few have approved it. It is a complex and challenging issue in the field of medical care ...

A popular saying goes “to err is human” which has been proven true in many instances that human beings are generally fallible. People can be wrong but contrary to many skeptics arguments, their fallibility shows that not only would they be wrong, but can also be right. Being wrong does not only carry the possibility of one being right, but implies that often he/she is. Fallibility is a mark of objectivity as it shows there is no standard other than oneself which determines what is right or wrong. Most people can be wrong in given instances but that does ...

Abstract

The concept of the death penalty is one of the world’s most sensitive issues due to the fact countries are divided over its use and validity. While there are nations who have slowly removed the death penalty in their penal code, there are states who still see its worth and continue to practice it against the worst criminals in their history. Currently, countries like the United States and Iran continue the practice of the capital punishment despite the controversies regarding their executions and the nature of death penalty itself. However, it is visible that both nations varied extensively ...

Voluntary Active and Passive Euthanasia

Voluntary Active and Passive Euthanasia

Introduction

Euthanasia is a moral issue, and it is also referred to as mercy killing. Mercy killing or euthanasia is a purposely acting, or failure to act in order to end someone’s life, who is suffering from a terminal illness. For many people, medics included, matters of life and death are not easy to handle, due to the morality issues involved. Two types of euthanasia, depending on activity, exist: passive and active euthanasia. Passive euthanasia can be compared to letting die, while active euthanasia is comparable to killing.

Universalizability morally treats a similar moral situation in a morally similar ...

Introduction

Capital punishment is one of the longest raging debates regarding punishment of criminals in the criminal justice system. Capital punishment, commonly referred to as the death penalty, is a method of retribution against capital crimes by killing the perpetrator (Mandery, 2011). The death penalty has received severe criticism in recent years from civil rights groups, activists and pro-life campaigners. The main aim of this paper is to consider a variety of methods used to execute criminals, their history, their effectiveness and peripheral matters regarding this issue. The death penalty is one of the oldest recognizable forms of punishment for capital ...

Death Penalty

DEATH PENALTY 2 Abstract The main aim of this research is to depict history of the death penalty from its evolution and to show the role of it nowadays. A comparison of old and modern methods of execution reveals the movement to human and democratic world. The ancient death penalty can be characterized as one of the most cruel and varvarous methods. The execution in the Middle ages is also inhuman. Today, the society undergones transformation and develops of painless means of execution. Specifically, this paper considers such kinds of execution as burning alive, decapitation, hanging, boiling ...

Is the Death Penalty Ethical?

In modern society, the optimal penalty is considered to be in conjunction with the reformation and social rehabilitation of persons who have committed a crime. In this context, the death penalty is an extreme measure of punishment that is only a punitive penalty. It is only punitive, because the death penalty cannot lead to one of the main purposes of punishment that is reeducation of a person that has committed a crime. Death penalty that is also called capital punishment is deprivation of life as a punishment by the state for committed crime. Can be institutionalized by the state and implemented by a final ...

Introduction

This research paper considers and evaluates the arguments propounded by Rachels (2002) regarding both active and passive forms of euthanasia. In order to be clear on the precise meanings of those terms, it is appropriate to define them before discussing these topics. The research undertaken for this paper will validate Rachels’ views on the issue, which are essentially that there should be no moral or ethical distinction between the two types of euthanasia – basically because in many instances active euthanasia is in fact more humane, because it drastically shortens the duration of the individual’s pain and suffering.

Active and Passive Euthanasia Defined

Active ...

The prime responsibility of all the professionals involved with the dispensation of criminal justice in the United States of America, especially those professionals directly charged with the administration of the capital punishment, is to exercise the powers invested in them ethically and with due regard to the norms of justice. In order to set the record straight due respect must be shown to the legal processes and the practices as far as the statistically disproportionate inequitable administration of the capital punishment to the racial minorities in the United States is concerned (Weber 2013). The United States federal government ...

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Ending a guilty person’s life licenses no one to be cruel. All the more so, when the clearest most certain evidences leading to a verdict are still at scope for human error. These odds of innocence were enough to entitle a degree of respect to anyone. Those people who stand as witnesses to an execution, such as the relative of the victim and offender, the prison staff, and sometimes assigned journalists, come from distinct perspectives. Nonetheless, a good person would not look forward to see someone break a neck, as in the case of hanging, being electrocuted to death, ...

Is There a Place for the Death Penalty in the Modern United States?

INTRODUCTION A man in a plain orange jumpsuit is led down a long hallway of dark cells, surrounded by a number of armed guards, his feet and arms shackled. They enter a small room, with a number of windows, and several officially dressed men. This is this man’s execution. From here, he may be strapped into an electric chair, led onto the gallows, or prepared for lethal injection. The means of capital punishment may differ from state to state, as well as, and debate whether or not capital punishment, or death penalty, should be a legal outcome of criminal convictions, regardless of crime. ...

Euthanasia has been debated for a long time now. There are many divergent and convergent opinions on the issues of Euthanasia. One wonders whether is it is possible to justify euthanasia. There are two types of euthanasia, passive and active. To differentiate between the two, one has to carefully analyze the fundamental differences from a traditional point of view. From a traditional point of view, passive euthanasia is permissible while active euthanasia is highly prohibited. However, active euthanasia is more humane than passive euthanasia that is mainly just letting an individual die (James Rachels and Stuart Rachels, 2011). The boundary between the ...

Capital punishment is considered as legal sentence in 32 states and may be applied both by federal and state courts. In the United States, the traditions of capital punishment are borrowed from English common law. Historically, apart from the official, state-sanctioned executions, the United States had a peculiar phenomenon of public executions, also known as lynching. In the Wild West, sheriffs who acted as law enforcement officials, at their own discretion, sentenced offenders to death and sometimes carried out the execution. Electric chair, as a method of execution, was invented at the end of the XIX century and in a short ...

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Death penalty Methods & the Eighth Amendment: An Introduction The American Congress or any state legislature may lay down the death penalty for a convict, as a result of murder and other heinous offenses. The US Supreme Court noted that the capital punishment is not a breach of the US Eighth Amendment; however, it outlined some practical features concerning when a judge might apply the capital penalty and how it must be performed. Due to the Fourteenth Amendment's Clause, the Eighth Amendment is pertinent against the US states, and the federal government. Eighth ...

Death penalty is a punishment of execution which is usually administered to someone who is legally convicted of a capital crime. It is also the execution of an offender, sentenced to death after a conviction by a court of law for a criminal offence (Isenberg, 1977). It is the sentence of execution for murder and other capital crimes such as murder. The death penalty is the most severe form of capital (corporal) punishment as it requires the law enforcement officials to kill the convicted offender. There are different types of death penalty that include: lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging and the firing squad. ...

Criminal justice system issues are studied nowadays and will be studied until humankind exists. The point is that such issues are rather controversial. Some people state that we are only humans and we are not allowed to judge others. On the other hand, there are those who are always unsatisfied with verdicts and state that sentences should be stricter. This essay is devoted to the issue of death penalty in the United States of America. In this essay I will claim that death penalty should be canceled in the United States of America, explaining that through the consequentialism theory. ...

Debate about the legality and morality of Euthanasia has been a phenomenon since time immemorial. How can it be lawful to let a patient die slowly and painless through a lethal injection thus saving his/her family from yet another ordeal to add to what has already befallen them? It is very difficult to find a moral answer to this question. Euthanasia is a process of ending a person’s life in order to relieve them from an unbearable pain, irreversible comma or an incurable disease. Is it really right to help a patient end their suffering by helping them to die? In addition, does it morally ...

Assisted suicide

Recently in the newspapers there was a man who killed his wife who was suffering from stage four cancer. In his defense, he said that the wife had asked him to kill her in order for her to stop feeling pain. The wife was no longer responding to pain medication and was in agony for several weeks. This act of mercy killing is called euthanasia.

Euthanasia

Euthanasia is defined as the intentional killing of people in order to relieve them from pain and suffering. Euthanasia is a hotly debated topic. Critics believe that mercy killing is unethical. They believe that the choice ...

Euthanasia refers to the act or practice of ending a life intentionally with the aim of relieving pain and suffering. Different countries have different laws on Euthanasia. According to the British Select Committee that deals with Medical Ethics in the House of Lords, euthanasia is "a deliberate intervention which is undertaken with the main intention of ending life, with the purpose of relieving intractable suffering". In the Netherlands, it is understood as "the termination of life at the patient’s request by a doctor. Euthanasia can be voluntary, involuntary, or non- voluntary. Voluntary euthanasia is considered legal in certain countries and some ...

Corporal and capital punishment were, and in many parts of the world still are, part of legal processes. Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the purposeful infliction of pain for a crime. Capital punishment is the legal process where someone is put to death as punishment for a crime. The pain inflicted in corporal punishment can take on many forms; some examples include, paddling, whipping, flogging, and other forms resembling torture. Capital punishment on the other hand, involves the judicial sanction of killing and can be accomplished by, hanging, crucifixion, drowning, beheading, firing squad, lethal injection, and there ...

A brief policy analysis

Abstract Capital punishment or death penalty is among the most debated topics in contemporary times. The opponents and supporters of capital punishments put forth several arguments in support of their stand. Capital punishment has had a long history, and effected differently at different periods of times, by different cultures. In modern times statistics has shown that capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime, as countries without capital punishment have less crime rate compared to those that have capital punishment. In a progressive world the practice of capital punishment must be reconsidered urgently as it doesn’t serve any individual or ...

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The subject of death penalty unnerves us as we recall the tragic Colorado shooting. In this movie theater shooting, the criminal, James Holmes, killed many people without impunity. He killed twelve innocent, moviegoers and wounded more than 50 (Ferguson, p. 1). Mr. Holmes may be psychologically ill or a social deviant but this does not justify the killings and the social trauma it caused the nation. The more we try to understand why people kill innocent people, the more we begin to justify a severe punishment. Is the death penalty the answer to such violent incidents? Strong public support for ...

Article review

Over the last four decades, there have been major trends in the criminal law sectors. Criminology has revolutionized from the basic notions proposed by Aristotle to the contemporary laws and regulations proposed by the modern authorities in the field of law and criminology. More so, there have been major changes in correction centers, authorization of sentencing, and other sectors involving the criminal handling. Additionally, article review includes relating a piece of writing in criminology to the modern world and trends that are taking place in the modern world perception of the justice system. Still criminals have become more advanced in ...

Euthanasia is a process whereby patients who suffer from terminal sicknesses or are in excruciating pain authorize a physician to induce death. This procedure is usually aimed at relieving the patient from excessive suffering and pain. Most countries in the world, except a few, allow this practice. Euthanasia is a word derived from two Greek words, eu and thanasia, which mean good and death respectively. Therefore, it means good death. Euthanasia is classified into two major groups. One form of classification classifies euthanasia as involuntary and voluntary. Another, which is also the most used form of classification, is passive and active euthanasia. Euthanasia ...

In the 21st century, criminal offenses have become the order of the day. In order to counter crime, United States of America has implemented various forms of execution. These forms of execution range from hanging, gas chamber, beheading, electrocution, as well as firing squad. Perhaps, most of these have raised a lot of concern on how inhumane, brutal, cruel, and unusual among people. Most activists term this forms inhuman; therefore, in 1977 the United States government adopted lethal injection to be an alternative method of execution as it was seen to be human. New York practitioners advocated the course ...

California laws

The American state of California has embarked on strict laws in almost every aspect of its governing system, from drugs and substance abuse to gun laws, homosexuality, and even family relationships (IACJ, 2008). Of most important law is the inclusion of the death penalty in the state laws, and it is arguable that this law has achieved very little of its intended purposes.

California is a state with a history of enacting and abiding to strict laws. Capital punishment has been there in California since 1849, with methods used for executions changing with time ever since, probably due to technology, criticism, ...