R: Put Down the Death Penalty

The debate over capital punishment has surfaced so often over the last few decades that it needs little explanation. But while the question is easy to frame, the answer isn't. Execution was long thought to be a reasonable—perhaps necessary—way to punish the most egregious crimes. The cosmic order is upset as long as the murderer lives, the argument goes, and retribution is the only way to restore it. The more recent drive to abolish the death penalty has exposed some of the issues surrounding it. After all, is it even the state's duty to preserve this cosmic order? Doesn't it suffice to lock up the criminals so that they don't harm any more people? But then again, the death penalty might be the strongest deterrent we have to prevent future crimes, and several studies have backed this claim. Unfortunately, governments' efforts to prevent—rather than just punish—certain crimes have led to massive abuses of state power throughout history. And if we are wary of governments infringing on so many of our liberties—religious, political, and economic—why would we allow them to dispossess us of the most unalienable right of all—life? Perhaps Man shouldn't be in the business of taking those things that have been granted by a higher authority.