Lethal injection ruling confirms societal right

Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: OpEd Page

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My biggest problem with this debate stems from the fact that I don't believe that you should have the same rights as an average citizen after you take a life. You forfeit those rights the minute you pull the trigger-or after any other means you might use to kill someone. The fact that we're debating whether or not to execute killers based on whether it hurts is asinine. The needle hurts when it's pushed in; they did not sterilize the injection area-give me a break. We all need to make a reality check: these convicts are sentenced to death. If they feel pain before or as they die, does it really matter after the immeasurable pain they have inflicted on their victims and those families? The answer is a simple "no."

Even the Old Testament of the Bible presented "an eye for an eye," so where are the arguments about religious morality involved in this? You can't say an eye for an eye and then turn around and say every life is sacred, it doesn't work that way. Luckily, this is why we have separation of church and state.

So for now, until there is insurmountable evidence that unusual amounts of pain are felt during lethal injection, there are no infractions on the Eighth Amendment and executions will be carried out throughout the 36 states that still use capital punishment. Call it barbaric if you want, but it is nothing short of practical.

Tyler Pearl
pearltm@muohio.edu

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