The Concept of Moral Relativism

Death Penalty

Name of Student

Institution Affiliation

The concept of moral relativism argues that moral judgments are relative, and they depend on the viewpoint that individual parties take. On that note, moral relativism introducers the fact that there is no morally false of actual standpoint as there are no privileges that are accorded selected perspectives. In the modern age, the death penalty is one of the highly contested and controversial moral issues. The controversy arises in that there are those who believe the death penalty is justified while other segments believe that this practice is immoral (Walker, 2017). The use of moral relativism offers an effective platform that can allow both sides to be evaluated so that an enhanced understanding of the death penalty can be attained.

Using the case of the United States, the death penalty, which has been categorized as capital punishment, is being used in an approximated 29 states. In addition to this, the federal government, as well as the military, uses this legal penalty. One of the reasons that the military, federal government, and the 29 states are in support of the death penalty is that it allows a means through which capital crimes can be punished without claims of disproportionate. In other terms, there are certain crimes (such as murder) that need to be penalized, and life sentences have been argued as disproportionate (Li, 2017). The basis of this is argument is that there is no life that is valuable than another and therefore, the best way to punish murders is to take their lives as well. Moral relativism argues that viewpoints to moral issues should be based on sane arguments and that decision-making skills have to be outsourced (Li, 2017). Thus, the decision to incorporate the death penalty in the country as a means to justly punish capital crimes such as murder is reasonable, although it should not be viewed as uniquely privileged.

In addition to this, violent crimes have to be deterred, and the death penalty offers a means through which they can be discouraged. Examples of violent crimes are homicide and manslaughter. These crimes have far-reaching effects on the larger community as well as the parties that are not directly involved in the selected crimes. Thus, most of the states that are still incorporating the death penalty argue from the moral viewpoint that it discourages the criminals who might be looking to commit them (Beebe, & Sackris, 2016). The positivist theory proposes that punishments can be used as effective deterrence for crime, and this notion is the same as that employed for the death penalty (Beebe, & Sackris, 2016). Moral relativism accommodates this perspective in that it proposes basing actions on reasons, and in this case, the reason is tO prevent violent crime in the country.