> Timothy Mcviegh will die tomorrow at 8:00am EST. What are your thoughts on this? He committed a horrible crime but does it give the government the right to take his life? My mom used to always say, "two wrongs don't make a right" when my excuse for hitting my sister was "she hit me first", but its very true. The government (or anyone else for that matter) has no right to take anyone's life, no matter how horrible the crime. Life is precious, and most don't realize it until it has been lost.
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> ht"realizing how inappropriate his Sn is for this topic"aeD


My feeling is that what is going to happen is the right thing.
I also think that your mother was absolutely right.
How do I reconcile these to views? I take both practical and moral views into consideration. As far as I'm concerned, a person who willfuly (sp?) kills several other, to him/her unknown, human beings simply has to go: It's a matter of preservation of our species. Sacrifice one life to preserve potentially many others.
Morally, no-one has any more right than any other to take lives, but if it has to be done (as in this case), I'd say that the government has the obligation to do it, being the highest authority in the country.

The problem with moral standards is that they don't scale infinitely: There must be limits, where purely practical considerations take over. On the other hand, moral standards contribute immensely to quality of life - of both our community's and our own - when we are within reasonably limits.

jul"anyone familiar with Maslov's pyramid?"ian