ABSTRACT

Allowing, even assisting, a terminally ill person to die is one thing. Taking life from one person to prevent or discourage the misdeeds of others is quite another. This is an often-heard deterrence justification for capital punishment. Likewise, executing the offender is seen as a retributive and perhaps restitutive means to redress suffering and bring closure to the grief inflicted by brutal acts. These justifications, grounded in the protec - tion of life and the alleviation of suffering, are often coupled with a thoroughgoing dehumanization of the offender, who, transformed into a subhuman beast, deserves death.1