Argument

     People disagree about whether capital punishment is moral and if it is effective in discouraging crime. For me, capital punishment is an unusual punishment, but its positive sides are strong enough to make it an acceptable punishment in certain cases. People who agree with capital punishment usually defend their opinion with three basic reasons: it's low in cost, it's deterrent, and it’s ethically acceptable. 


     First, money is an exhaustible commodity and the government may better spend the resources on education, health, society etc., rather than on the long term imprisonment of murderers and criminals. It is not fair at all to let criminals benefit from the government's money, which is people’s money, to feed them and provide necessities of life for them, while their victims suffer or are dead.

 
   Second, does the death penalty deter? It would seem that in some countries (e.g. Saudi Arabia), which almost always carry out death sentences, there is far less serious crime. This tends to indicate that the death penalty is deterrent. A Saudi person that I talked to about this topic confirmed this fact. He said that because of the death sentence, almost everyone respects the laws. In addition, the death penalty is more likely to be deterrent where the crime requires planning and the criminal has time to think about the possible consequences.     


   Third, capital punishment is considered acceptable by most of the religions. For example, the     Bible prescribes death for murder and many other crimes including kidnapping and witchcraft, and every Christian knows the famous “eye for eye”. In Islam for example, it is similar, “And We (God) ordained therein for them: Life for life, eye for eye, nose for nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth and wounds equal for equal. But if anyone remits the retaliation by way of charity, it shall be for him an expiation.” Similarly to Christianity and Islam, the official teachings of Judaism approve the death penalty in principle. Consequently, almost all the religions approve the death penalty and assume that it is God’s order.


     Fourthly, and immediate reason is that killing someone is unfair because victims of murder are gone forever. In addition to that, their families suffer from their loss. When we execute murderers, we strike fear in the hearts of people. Therefore, Capital punishment has a good aspect, because we avoid a lot of problems like revenge from the family of the victims. In some cultures, people seek revenge by hurting the person who has hurt them.


   Fifthly, There are a lot of people that disagree with capital punishment. They say that countries which have the death penalty have higher crime rates than those that don't, and more severe punishment only inspires more severe crimes. They also say that we have to respect right to life, and people can change in prison.
 
   In conclusion, capital punishment seems a very hard type of punishment but I believe that death penalty should not be abolished especially for the fact that it is ethically acceptable and because of its deterrence