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Originally Posted by Tactitus
That would have a disturbing utilitarian aspect, in that the death penalty would be enforced not on the basis of the acts of the criminals, but on their talents as artists, authors, etc. ( i.e., their usefulness). Frankly, that seems to me ultimately more dehumanizing than simply killing them ( we're killing you because you're an unrepentant brutal multiple-murderer and your poetry sucks).  |
really there are three options,
1. End the death penalty
2. Your 'dehumanizing' utilitarian option
3. Mass suicide
Because even though the marginal case of a person slated for death upon whose continued existence humanity depends seems an irrelevant hypothetical, if you do say "we'll wait until that happens" you've already selected option 2.