Re: "Well if the human is innocent of infringing upon the life of another human, then obviously I am against the death penalty."
>>> Now, that seems a lot more wishy-washy than your earlier statement: "...no attribute in any single human is sufficient to objectively designate a human as worthy of determining which other innocent humans should live or die."
[Correct. But we exist as a 'nation of laws' (as do all nations to varying degrees). So, the legal framework that organizes our social structure has significance in our lives.]
"Yes it does, and optimally the laws that govern our society should correspond to the natural "legal" structure of nature. But they do not."
>>> Gee, too bad 'nature' never wrote down it's 'laws' in a form everyone could agree with. (We are still struggling to understand the most fundamental physical realities of the Universe... we are a long way away from being able to read the 'bylaws and statutes'....)
"Well, once again, the innocence of the human is critical."
>>> 'Innocence'? Or, 'ignorance'? (If I am IGNORANT of the harm I bring to others... does that make me innocent? If I drop bombs from 30,000 feet... I don't KNOW that I've killed anyone. If I dump PCBs or mercury or lead waste into my local watercourse... I don't KNOW THE NAMES of people downstream in that watershed who eat the fish from it... or swim in the 'invisibly' polluted water. Am I 'innocent'?)
>>> I'd argue that in both cases, it may reasonably be inferred that my actions are the proximate cause of death, retardation, still births, spinal bifida, cancers, etc. (Perhaps, even to a higher level of proof & scientific 'certainty' than exists in most murder trials....)
"Regarding pollution, motive is also critical. Indeed motive is critical in any moral determination."
>>> REALLY? I didn't intend to kill their children, I just intended to get rich, and hoped no one downstream would connect me to their deaths and disabilities.... How then, are we to 'measure motive'? A little like 'weighing a soul', eh?
>>> How about: "...I owe them nothing. I am completely free to let them die in misery."
Message 19573566
>>> You 'owe'... not even compassion?????? |
