The Right to Life: inalienable or not?

If you’ve turned on the news in the past couple weeks, you’ve probably seen something about ISIS, who’ve been even busier than usual creating videos that make demands and show the gruesome murders of foreign hostages: first Haruna Yukawa, then his Japanese countryman Kenji Goto, and now Jordanian pilot Moath al-Kassasbeh—the first soldier from the US-led coalition to die. There’d been a lot of back-and-forth negotiations and threats going on, with Jordan threatening to swiftly execute all prisoners affiliated with ISIS if Kassabeh wasn’t released. When he wasn’t, and when a video was released Tuesday showing him burning alive, Jordan quickly followed through by killing two prominent jihadists. Seeing as even al-Qaeda leaders have criticized their “barbaric propaganda,” I don’t think I need to devote this blog post to denouncing ISIS. A better starting point for interesting questions, I think, is with Jordan’s response.

It’s hard to feel particularly saddened by the death of two long-since-convicted terrorists. This may point to a troubling desensitization to the loss of human life, but then plenty of people are killed daily in the Middle East, and many die at the hands of such violent extremists. I wouldn’t really say I’m surprised towards Jordan’s actions, much less resentful. The death of Kassabeh can’t be equated to those of Ziad al-Karbouli and Sajida al-Rishawi, the latter two having sat for quite some time on death row after being convicted by Jordan, a sovereign state—plus, you know, they weren’t burned alive on camera for the sake of internet spectacle. Still, it’s hard not to see some parallel when their deaths were a direct result of his, following immediately. What was Jordan doing if not trying to send a message and intimidate its foes? There’s something at least slightly off-putting about a nation being so willing to manipulate its judicial system in sudden retaliation against a terrorist organization like ISIS. What does trying to meet them in their merciless action accomplish? I doubt fear of execution will do much to prevent terrorism. Rishawi is only alive because her explosive-filled vest didn’t detonate properly.

Capital punishment isn’t something that I think much about, but it is worth considering. They say you can judge a society on the way it treats its prisoners, so... take that to its obvious conclusion. Carrying out the death penalty is clearly an act of vengeful violence, albeit government-sanctioned violence. By its very definition it is legal, so we can’t call it murder, and in theory it occurs only with good reason. But what end does it serve? A recent study from the University of Colorado found little evidence of the death penalty doing much to deter crime; the study found that more than 88% of the near 70 criminologists surveyed agreed with its lack of effectiveness. No apparent correlation suggests a link with lower crime rates. Just looking at the US (since comparing Sweden and Sudan might be unfair), decades of data show states without the death penalty having lower murder rates. But hey, maybe employing the death penalty isn’t strictly about preventing future crimes from occurring. Maybe, instead of practical concerns, it’s about the principle and people getting what they deserve. The answer to that, of course, would be that the right to life is the most basic of all human rights, and human rights by definition are supposed to be inalienable; they aren’t given and they can’t be taken away; we all have them by virtue of our humanity.

When it comes to the philosophical question of whether or not capital punishment is acceptable under any circumstances, I don’t know that I have a strong opinion either way. Despite all the reasons against it, there’s still a primal sense of “Come on, some people deserve it.” If I had to pick a side, I think it would probably come down on the same one as all of Europe, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, etc. No offense to fine folks like China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Syria, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, or Sudan. You guys do you.