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I will never understand why people seem to think it is more humane to keep a man in a cage until he dies of old age than just to kill him and be done with it.

GauntletWizard 11y ago
Given the choice between a reasonably-long prison sentence and euthanasia, I'd take the latter. I cannot imagine that I would want to meet the man I'd be after twenty years in 'the can', even in a rehabilitation-focused country, let alone the US. Maybe Aaron had a point.
- MichaelGG 11y ago
  I'm sure this is true for some people. But humans tend to adapt their levels of happiness fairly rapidly, even when they predict they would be extremely unhappy. For instance, many paralyzed folks end up feeling not as bad as they would have thought. In a decent prison, it's quite plausible that you might adjust rather rapidly. Still, forcing someone to continue to exist is cruel and they should have the option to opt-out, after a cool-down period and counseling and other safeguards.
- meric 11y ago
  What if you were innocent? Would you tell your lawyers to give up?
smtddr 11y ago
Because you might find out tomorrow that the person you killed was actually innocent. In contrast, if someone is freed after wrongly imprisoned for 3 years... at least that person is now free and alive. Even if it's 1/3000 people are actually innocent, that's enough reason not to use the death penalty. And even if the person is guilty, I'm not convinced killing someone is the correct punishment for any kind of crime except for some very rare extreme situations that I can't even think of right now.
bpodgursky 11y ago
Even worse is the people who complain that death row is "too expensive". It's expensive because prisoners get appeal after appeal! This is a good thing! Every chance to find some exculpating evidence is given. If nothing shows up in the 2+ decades you're on death row, nothing probably will. If you get life in prison, you're only going to get a second chance if someone else actively confesses to the murder (and maybe not even then). Otherwise... they just throw away the key. How "humane".
witty_username 11y ago
If so, giving them the choice would be better no?

GauntletWizard 11y ago

Given the choice between a reasonably-long prison sentence and euthanasia, I'd take the latter. I cannot imagine that I would want to meet the man I'd be after twenty years in 'the can', even in a rehabilitation-focused country, let alone the US. Maybe Aaron had a point.

MichaelGG 11y ago
I'm sure this is true for some people. But humans tend to adapt their levels of happiness fairly rapidly, even when they predict they would be extremely unhappy. For instance, many paralyzed folks end up feeling not as bad as they would have thought. In a decent prison, it's quite plausible that you might adjust rather rapidly. Still, forcing someone to continue to exist is cruel and they should have the option to opt-out, after a cool-down period and counseling and other safeguards.
meric 11y ago
What if you were innocent? Would you tell your lawyers to give up?

smtddr 11y ago

Because you might find out tomorrow that the person you killed was actually innocent. In contrast, if someone is freed after wrongly imprisoned for 3 years... at least that person is now free and alive. Even if it's 1/3000 people are actually innocent, that's enough reason not to use the death penalty. And even if the person is guilty, I'm not convinced killing someone is the correct punishment for any kind of crime except for some very rare extreme situations that I can't even think of right now.

bpodgursky 11y ago

Even worse is the people who complain that death row is "too expensive". It's expensive because prisoners get appeal after appeal! This is a good thing! Every chance to find some exculpating evidence is given. If nothing shows up in the 2+ decades you're on death row, nothing probably will. If you get life in prison, you're only going to get a second chance if someone else actively confesses to the murder (and maybe not even then). Otherwise... they just throw away the key. How "humane".

witty_username 11y ago

If so, giving them the choice would be better no?