Death penalty

Throughout history, statistics have proven that Capital Punishment or otherwise known as the death penalty has been an effective deterrent of major crime. Capital Punishment is the lawful infliction of death among criminals and has been used to punish a wide variety of offenses for many years all over the world (Bedau 16). When the death penalty is enforced, it shows society that committing a capital crime has deadly consequences.

The death penalty deters murder by putting the fear of death into would be killers. A person is less likely to do something, if he or she thinks that harm will come to him. Another way the death penalty deters murder, is the fact that if the killer is dead, he will not be able to kill again.

Most supporters of the death penalty feel that offenders should be punished for their crimes, and that it does not matter whether it will deter the crime rate. Supporters of the death penalty are in favour of making examples out of offenders, and that the threat of death will be enough to deter the crime rate, but the crime rate is irrelevant.

In 1939 South Dakota adopted and used the death penalty, and its homicide rate fell twenty percent over the next decade; North Dakota went without Capital Punishment for the same ten years, and homicide rates went up.



Case

In February, 2006, two versions of a South Dakota bill to overturn Roe vs. Wade were passed through the House and the Senate with strong votes. The bill says that only abortions to save the life of a woman would be acceptable (abcnews.go.com/). It does not allow exceptions in the cases of rape or incest, nor does it include preventing serious or permanent disability of the woman. This South Dakota Bill is allowing for a woman to give birth, but possibly be paralyzed for the rest of her life afterwards. How is the woman supposed to care for her child then, if she cannot care for herself? The law requires the doctor to make a reasonable medical effort to save the life of the fetus (abcnews.go.com). If the fetus suffers accidental or unintentional death, then there would be no penalty. It does not give a clear description on what the penalty would be if a doctor killed the fetus in order to save the woman (abcnews.go.com).

This bill also prohibits the use of an "emergency contraceptive," commonly known as the "morning after pill" (news.yahoo.com/). When first looked at, the two major components of the bill may contradict each other. It wants to eliminate access to abortion, and prohibit the sale of emergency contraceptives. The main reason women turn to abortion, is to end an unwanted pregnancy, therefore, emergency contraceptive would be the best answer. It eliminates pregnancy, and lowers the abortion rate. It does make sense if you look at the underlying philosophical means of the bill. An analysis by the South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion states that a human being is present at ...