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Capital punishment still has majority support in Australia : Comments
By Sinclair Davidson and Tim Fry, published 16/10/2007It is not unreasonable for the Australian government to oppose the execution of Australians overseas while opposing the death penalty in Australia.
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Why is the murder of a child more despicable than the murder of an adult? That child may have grown up to become a brutal dictator and have been responsible for millions of deaths. In this case you could argue that the murderer has done a 'good' thing by saving all those lives. What about the murder of someone like Victor Chang who could have gone on to save hundreds of lives with his special skills. Should his murderer be held responsible for the lives of all those people Victor Chang would have saved?
You cannot make a decision about the severity of a murder based on the identity of the victim. You cannot place a value on the life of one person over another unless you have some way of measuring that value and comparing it with other values. To make an argument for selective capital punishment on the same grounds is equally unreasonable.
“The lives of the worst kinds of criminals are sacrosanct. Only the lives of the innocent are expendable.” All life is sacrosanct and no lives are expendable. Neither murder or capital punishment will ever change that