DeathandJustice(议论文范文).doc

Death and Justice:How Capital Punishment Affirms Life Edward I．KochDuring my 22 years in public service,I have heard the pros and cons of capital punishment expressed with special intensity.I have heard people’s ideas.I have weighed their objections carefully.I still support the death penalty.The reasons I maintain my position can be best understood by examining the arguments most frequently heard in opposition. 2 (refuting) The death penalty is“barbaric.’’Sometimes opponents of capital punishment horrify with tales of lingering death on the gallows（绞刑架），of faulty electric chairs,or of agony （临死挣扎）in the gas chamber.Partly in response to such protests,several states such as North Carolina and Texas switched to execution by lethal （致死的）injection.The condemned person is put to death painlessly,without ropes,voltage, bullets,or gas.Did this answer the objections of death penalty opponents? Of course not.On June 22,1984,The New York Times published an editorial （社论）that sarcastically attacked the new“hygienic”（卫生的）method of death by injection,and stated that“execution can never be made humane through science.’’So it’s not the method that really troubles opponents.It’s the death itself they consider barbaric. 3 (reasoning 1) Practically, capital punishment is not a pleasant topic. However,one does not have to like the death penalty in order to support it any more than one must like radical surgery, radiation,or chemotherapy(化学疗法) in order to find necessary these attempts at curing cancer. Ultimately,we may learn how to cure cancer with a simple pill.Unfortunately,that day has not yet arrived.Today we are faced with the choice of letting the cancer spread or trying to cure it with the methods available,methods that one day will almost certainly be considered barbaric.But to give up and do nothing would be far more barbaric and would certainly delay the discovery of an eventful cure.The analogy between cancer and murder is imperfect,because murder is not the“disease”we are