While I feel sorry for this boy and his family. I still don't see why all the fuss about his impending death. He is after all a drug trafficker, everyone knows the penalty for this in Singapore, so why the surprise? Unfortunate for him that he chose to deal in drugs to make some quick money! Break the rules in a foreign country and you pay for it by their rules!!

Redneck

Happy to answer your questions. I had to break the answers up into two posts to get under the word limit.

1. Do you have any idea about what you are talking about?

Yes.

2. By what rationale do you suppose that the death penalty will not help control drug trafficking?

I didn't say that. If you kill enough people, you can probably control just about anything, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

3. Would you rather be a drug pusher in Australia or Singapore?

What's a drug pusher, and where are they pushing them? Up a hill? Into the unwilling arms of schoolchildren? I wouldn't do it anywhere. But if I did, I would rather do it in Australia

4. Why?

Because here, the judicial system might take into account the fact that I was a 19 year old drug addict who had been sexually abused by her drunken stepfather from the age of 12 (for example) and give me another chance.

5. If you were a heroin courier, would you smuggle heroin through Singapore?

I might. I would consider a 20 year prison sentence to be an effective death sentence anyway. I might also be someone less fortunate than myself who didn't really care all that much about whether I lived or died.

6. If not, why not?

See answer above.

7. Over 1000 people died of heroin overdoses in Australia last year. How many died in Singapore?

I don't think over 1000 people died of heroin overdoses in Australia last year. I think it was more like 400. Which is still horrific. I don't know how many died in Singapore, quite a few die from hanging though. How many people do you think would die of heroin overdoses if they knew what it was and how strong it was when they brought it?

I like the base-jumping analogy, except that Van Nguyen isn't dead yet. Next time I come across a critically injured base-jumper, I will be sure and leave them to die so they know just how silly they have been.

You can just about justify the death penalty for anything. I'm sure Iran doesn't have many AIDs deaths, given that sex outside of marriage is a capital crime. We all know speed kills, so why not kill the speedsters ? Every K over is a killer.

I personally favour the death penalty for those who lie on their resume (paying attention Dr Patel ?).

More answers for Redneck

8. Did anybody die of a heroin overdose in Singapore last year?

I don't know. Apparently, heroin users in Singapore smoke it rather than injecting it, meaning they are much less likely to overdose. However, as far as I can tell from a fairly basic internet search, a significant number of people in Singapore still use heroin despite the severe penalties.

9. Can you name one book on criminology that you have read?

No.

10. Can you name one book that you have ever read, other than Harry Potter?

Crime and Punishment, Bleak House, Vernon God Little, Shame, Midnights Children, Tropic of Capricorn, Atonement, Player Piano, The Secret River, The Red Rose and the White, Trouble, Praise, Bliss, Specimen Days, Atonement, White Noise, Double Jeopardy, The First World War. Too many others to list. Harry Potter is good too.

11. Has your residential circumstances ever allowed you to live with very real violent criminals, where you could check the personality profiles of criminals given by Psychologists and Criminologists, against your own personal experiences?

I have been fortunate enough to avoid living with violent criminals, either real or imaginary.

12. Since hard drug pushers routinely murder their competitors they are therefore known to be great believers in the death penalty themselves. Why should they be exempt from the same punishment that they routinely inflict on others?

Because we should not adopt the morality of murders.

13. Is the fact that Singapore is doing so well economically, because they prefer to spend their money on scientific research and education instead of building more jails, injecting rooms, drug rehabilitation clinics and cemeteries?

No. Do you really think that tougher drug laws would mean less jails in Australia? And it seems that Singapore insists on people caught with drugs doing a rehabilitation course, so I'm guessing they spend a bit of money on that too. I don't think the cost of cemetaries or injecting rooms is significant in either Australia or Singapore.

Everyone seems to agree that Van Nguyen had the potential to ruin many lives with the heroin that he was planning on bringing into Australia. True, he had the potential to harm alot of lives, but has he harm anyone?

To all you Wan.kers who think that Van Nguyen should be hang, I would like to see u stand there and watch it. How many of you guys been caught drink driving? Didn't your action have the potential to kill others and adversely ruin lives? Should you be hang? Little Johnny Howard mis-led Australia about the Iraq war. How many innocent Iraqi's did he kill? Should he be hang?

Being a majority Catholic society, you guys should be ashame of yourselves calling yourself Christians. Life is precious, who are we to play God?

Jimmii

The whimpish apologists such as Jimmi demonstrates how pathetic our society has become.No one is responsible for their actions and is entitled to endless opportunities to reoffend and destroy the very society that gives them sustenance.Few have condoned the death sentence,but we have also made it clear he knew full well the chances he was taking.We have this endless stream of opologists who live for their ideals yet take no notice of daily injustices in our society that not only kill people but destroy the quality of life for millions.Their ideals apparently are more important than the "common good".If our nation is to give a minutes silence for his death,it reveals that our shallowness and homage to media generated platitudes knows no depths.We have really lost it.

The rights of the majority who slave each day to provide this fragile umbrella called civilisation must surely be heeded or we will all eventually suffer anarchy and poverty.

Order,freedom and prosperity does come at a cost.How many of us really appreciate the sacrifices of those who fought in WW2 for such freedoms under far less sympathetic conditions than Nguyen faces.I don't think he deserves to die, but he took his chances and lost.
Say a prayer for his mother.