Crazy Thought

Okay, (I like to start posts off with "Okay", it gets me in the mood to write) so I have this idea. It's not a great idea and it has some flaws. It's the kind of idea that will keep me from ever getting elected to public office anywhere but maybe in Texas. Fortunately, I don't ever plan to run for office.

I was thinking about the irony of making sure that people on death row don't commit suicide. It's the whole thing where the state doesn't want to be deprived of killing them, or something.

So here's the idea: we let people on death row or have life sentences kill themselves if they want to. Only people who are going to spend the rest of their lives in prison would be eligible. They could go to the prison doctor and get OD'd with morphine or some other drug. This would save a quite a bit of money from not having to hear appeals or housing these people and it would save some the prisoners the suffering of living long lives in prison. Arguably, it is cruel and unusual punishment to make someone live when they don't want to.

Obviously, there are problems with this. Three in particular.

1. I believe (as many other people do) that if you commit suicide, you go to hell. So by allowing these people to kill themselves, you are letting them go to hell, which is a moral sticking point. This could be countered by saying that these people are making the choice on their own and it isn't the governments job to make sure that people go to heaven.

2. This could be abused by guards and wardens just to kill prisoners. There would have to be forms to fill out and signatures to be collected. It would probably be best if there was a third party that would be required to be present (like the prisoners lawyer) to make sure that the prisoner wasn't forced to do this.

3. The prisoner could be pressured into doing it by the people in charge. Since it would be beneficial to the state to have one less prisoner, careful monitoring would have to take place. You would want the prisoner in question to go through some sort of counseling to talk about the risks (dieing or maybe not dieing) and maybe even the spiritual risks (going to hell) that the person is taking. There would have to be a whole process.

Well, that's my imperfect idea.

mwz
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