Death Penalty: An On-Going Debate on Ethics

¶ … Death Penalty:

An on-going Debate on Ethics and Morality

The topic examined in this assignment was the death penalty. In this country, this issue is one of constant debate, as it exists in half the country (roughly), but not in the other half. The first paper, as mentioned, analyzed three articles, all of which were subsequently described and included in the copy in order to see how the death penalty was described by intellectuals, and what arguments they gave as to its use, or lack thereof. This paper will utilize Universal Intellectual Standards (UIS) to critically review and re-evaluate the rational utilized in the previous assignment.

Firstly, clarity is very important in this assignment. The reason why the results here were further stratified was because the initial results were lacking in clarity. According to the UIS, clarity is the fist that should be applied to any work, in order to ensure its quality. Clarity is needed to see whether the information is accurate and relevant, which gives an analysis its best and most honest basis. Thus, when the topic of death penalty was typed firstly into the library website, there were too many results, with too little clarity. Thus, in order to remedy this defect, the results were reclassified by date, or chronologically, and this helped refine the research to most relevant and most current.

Another important facet of the UIS is accuracy. Each of the three articles spoke about accuracy, yet the descriptions did not focus wholly on this. For instance, in the first article, accuracy was not a facet to be stressed, for this article was a matter of opinion more than anything. Though the author utilizes legal terms to explain his opinion, these were not truly defined in the description; thus, further stress on accuracy could have been added, thereby leading to more clarity about the matter at hand. The description of the article, however, is quite clear and quite in depth.

With regards to this latter facet, depth, as well as its related counterpart, relevance, the article does a good job, and the summary covers it as well. The relevance is clearly present, for the article deals directly with the death penalty, and due to the fact that the article is quite complex, this is also covered. Furthermore, the article has good logical arguments, and a sound description of them; it just lacks these in number. Furthermore, this first article seems a bit biased, so there are some questions as to its fairness. These latter concepts were not wholly addressed in the description; instead the first assignment focused more on a comprehensive summary, but when one looks back, it becomes evident that these concepts should be further elucidated.

In the second article, Kenneth Cooper explains why the death penalty still exists in the U.S. He claims that the evolution of the practice was shaped by various values, entrenched in the American system, which are still holding up the U.S. system, and which involve, among other concepts, racist views of some Americans. Therefore, Cooper argues for an ever more powerful rationale, though a biased one at that. The description of the article is sure to point out that despite its clarity, the article does not have enough fairness in considering this point-of-view relating to the death penalty, though it has sound logic. Fairness relates to those arguments that are made in good faith, and it seems that this author is trying to distort some of the arguments in favor of getting his point across and therefore, one could say, he is more concerned with his own vested interests rather than the common good.

In the last article, a very different take is presented. This is a very matter of fact finding, which focuses on a monetary aspect. As one can see from the above analysis, this is also a very different outlook on the article, which is good, because it shows how many ways this concept can be analyzed. The breadth of this article, and its depth, as well as logic, fairness, and clarity are very strong points that are also elucidated in the description. The quotation included is also a fair conclusion that the article draws from the study on which it focuses, and therefore leads even more credit to the fairness and accuracy of this particular author.