# Let's rethink "cruel and unusual" punishment **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 30, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rethink-cruel-and-unusual-punishment/594561 "2011-08-30T00:28:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 79
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2011, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rethink-cruel-and-unusual-punishment/594561/79 "2011-08-30T04:37:26Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > A humane killing is a bit of an oxymoron. Death is death. Slow or painful, the end result is the same. Agreed. Therefore, if we decide that someone needs killing, then why not do it the quick way? Once they’re dead, they no longer exist, and the pain and suffering we inflicted on them before their death is meaningless. To them. It only matters to us, the living. > [@](#): > > The standard by which actively injecting someone with a dose of lethal injection actively kills them, while dropping them off in the middle of the desert does not. Huh? How is that different? If I push you out of an airplane with a parachute, have I actively killed you or not? If I point a gun at you and pull the trigger, I haven’t actively killed you, I’ve just put you in the path of a bullet, and the bullet kills you, not me. > [@](#): > > Accomplishes in what terms? As a manner of fewer crimes? Probably little. As a manner of providing a manner of equity between the perpetrator and the victim? A lot. And here’s the nub. WHY is it important to create equity between the perpetrator and the victim? If there is a case where the victim can be made whole, then it makes sense. If I steal a candy bar, it makes sense for me to have to give back the candy bar, and one extra. But if I chop off someone’s foot, chopping off my foot doesn’t give the victim back his foot. And so what’s the point of chopping off my foot? Yes, I’ll get the same thing that happened to my victim. And so what? Then you let me go? Or, do you put me in jail, since I’ve beens shown to be the soft of person it isn’t safe to have feet around. And when I’m isolated in jail, I can’t chop anyone’s feet off. Since I can’t chop off anyone’s foot, because I’m in jail, what is accomplished by chopping of my foot? Don’t say, “equity”, because that just puts a name on it. Why is creating this state of so-called equity important? What’s the purpose? Will it lead to a better society? Will we be happier? Will we be safer? Will fewer people cut off feet in the future? If you say it doesn’t matter if we’re safer or happier after you cut off my foot, then why would you do it? --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rethink-cruel-and-unusual-punishment/594561)._