At the beginning of Chapter 7, Lewis Vaughn challenges us with the question "Is it permissible for a society to put one of its members to death for committing a serious crime?" (Page 348). When people commit crimes, no matter how serious, they should still have rights. That said, opposition to the death penalty does not negate the fact that the victims actually broke the law. Stephen Nathanson supports this position, “those who commit terrible crimes still deserve some level of dignified treatment simply because they remain living, functioning human beings.” He suggests that “by renouncing the use of death as punishment, we express and reaffirm our belief in the inalienable and inalienable core of human dignity” (page 354). Religiously speaking, God is the only one who can judge whether a person should live or not, if He can forgive us for all our sins, then we should too. Mark 3:28 “Truly I say to you, men can be forgiven all their sins and every slander that they utter.” Those who respond to God's call will know that through Him they will be given the gift to repent and be cleansed of all the sins they have committed. There shouldn't be sides, but in the world we live in today and in dealing with the death penalty in the chapter we see who is for and who is against. What makes us better than them is that we all do things that in someone else's eyes are wrong, the only real difference is that we don't get caught. It seems that rather than putting the person in prison and having a chance to make the world we live in today better, the person is better off dead. Utilitarianism believes that “it is better for one man to die than for all the people to die” (Kant, 355). We learn that Immanuel Kant is a retributivist and believes in death... middle of paper... how they can do better for themselves, their families, and society. Mahatma Gandhi wrote a quote that applies perfectly to the argument against the death penalty: “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” Works Cited Vaughn, Lewis. Readings of “Contemporary moral arguments” in ethical issues. Second edition. Oxford University PressStevenson, Bryan. Near Death: Reflections on Race and Capital Punishment in America,” In Debating the Death Penalty, ed. Hugo Bedau and Paul Cassell (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 97. Nathanson, Stephen. An eye for an eye? (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001).Gandhi, Mahatma Quotes on Freedom http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/freedomThe Innocence Project - The Innocents and the Death Penalty http://www. innocenceproject.org /Content/The_Innocent_and_the_Death_Penalty.php