Capital Punishment Light Of The Natural Law - 898 Words

Justin Yu GTX 2302 Dr. Foley Due: October 31, 2017 Capital Punishment in Light of the Natural Law The practice of the death penalty and capital punishment is a contemporary political issue that is widely debated throughout the United States. It is my opinion that capital punishment should either be discontinued or only reserved for the rarest of the rare case. In this essay, I will attempt to resolve the issue of whether the United States should continue or discontinue the practice of capital punishment by using the natural law theory set forth by Saint Thomas Aquinas and his greatest work, â€Å"Summa Theologiae†. Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274) was a Dominican catholic priest. Aquinas can be considered to be one of the most†¦show more content†¦The first principle of law according to Aquinas is that good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided. All other precepts of the natural law are based upon this† (ST I-II.94.2). The other precepts are self-preservation, procreation, education of offspring, seek truth avoid ignorance, and live in society. Aquinas believes the natural law is written on every human and every human has equal knowledge of good and evil; however, once individual circumstances are factored in, it is dependent upon humans to follow or ignore it. However, Aquinas believes that â€Å"the natural law, in the abstract, can nowise be blotted out from men s hearts† (ST I-II.94.6) but through bad habits of the society it could be weakened. According to Aquinas, the natural law has two main aspects. The first of these is that â€Å"the natu ral law is altogether unchangeable in its first principles† (ST I-II.94.5), which means God can add to, but not take away from, the law. This only applies to the primary precepts; the secondary precepts may change in some particular aspects. The second aspect is that â€Å"the written law is said to be given for the correction of the natural law† (ST I-II.94.6.ad 1); to put it simply, human laws are necessary to fill in the gaps/loopholes left from the natural law. Aquinas’ teachings shows that the actions of human is either good or bad depending on whether it conforms to reason. Aquinas’ view on capital punishment appears perfunctory. He believes that the state hasShow MoreRelatedEssay about Capital Punishment: An Ongoing Arguement1043 Words   |  5 Pageseffectiveness of capital punishment when concerning future violent crime rates. The death penalty is also costly when compared to the cost of imprisoning a violent criminal for life. With such a defi nitive punishment and with its finality, there have also been a large number of persons executed who were in fact shown to be innocent at a later time. 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