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Speciesism and the Death Penalty

Is it intellectually consistent for a death penalty abolitionist to feed her dog?There are those who claim that the death penalty is always wrong.  It doesn't matter if the criminal tortured his victims for days before killing them.  It doesn't even matter if the criminal enjoyed it.  That view is mere speciesism.  We say that because a person is a human, he's special.  We don't define what makes a human, human.  We ignore that what separates us from other animals is higher cognitive processes, reasoning, and empathy.  We say, "Humans are special.  That's the end of it."  Meanwhile, we give no second thought to "putting down" a violent dog.  We have, in other words, the death penalty for dogs.Yet are things so obvious?  Is human life really inherently more valuable than an animal's life?  Is it really wrong to kill a violent person - while it's right to kill a violent dog - because the person is a human?  Seems easy, right?  Well, here's something for you...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on November 09, 2009 (boomark / email).