Is the Right to Life Essential for Everyone?

Is the Right to Life Essential for Everyone?

The right to life is one of the fundamental rights of every human being. Governments should not use this right as a tool for revenge, repression, or the exercise of power. However, defending the right to life also has another side: the right to life of victims.

We cannot talk about the right to life only from the perspective of the individual who committed a crime while, at the same time, removing the person who became a victim of that crime from the equation.

The problem becomes more serious when someone deliberately and knowingly destroys another person's security and life in order to obtain money, power, pleasure, or personal interests. In such circumstances, society faces a fundamental question:

Can the right to life of a criminal be defended without considering the right to life of the victim?

My position on the death penalty is not absolute. I believe that the death penalty should not be a common or widespread punishment, nor should it be used as a tool to deal with social and criminal problems. At the same time, it is unacceptable to accept the idea that opposition to the death penalty, even for the most serious and heinous crimes, should become an absolute principle without exception.

In my view, there must be a clear distinction between different crimes; likewise, the fundamental differences between criminals and victims cannot be ignored.

Drug Trafficking: Beyond an Economic Crime

Drug trafficking cannot be considered merely a simple illegal economic activity. A professional drug trafficker exploits people's weaknesses and social vulnerabilities for profit, and this activity can lead to addiction, the breakdown of families, the destruction of young people's futures, and the spread of social harm.

Of course, there must be a clear distinction between a drug user and a drug trafficker. In many cases, the addicted person is themselves a victim of the cycle of addiction and cannot be equated with someone who knowingly and systematically profits from selling drugs.

However, when it comes to a trafficker who knowingly exploits the lives and futures of others, society has the right to demand serious criminal accountability.

This responsibility should be determined based on the individual's role, the level of organization, the extent of harm, and the available evidence, not merely on the title or classification of the crime.

Child Abuse: Violation of a Human Future

Sexual child abuse is among the consequences that can continue beyond the time of the crime.

A child who is abused can suffer deep and lasting harm to their personal security, self-confidence, social relationships, and life. A child does not have the capacity or power to defend themselves, which makes society's responsibility to protect them even greater.

Therefore, child abuse cannot be considered an ordinary crime.

Here too, the issue is not only the punishment of the offender; the question is how society can protect child victims and other children from the recurrence of these crimes and how it should hold accountable a person who deliberately harms a child.

Crimes: Where No Acceptable Excuse or Justification Exists!

When someone deliberately or even without prior intent takes another person's life, it is no longer merely a conflict between the individual and society. It is a direct violation of the right to life.

Of course, not all killings can be considered intentional. The circumstances of the crime, motive, degree of intent, condition of the victim, evidence, and other relevant factors must be examined in each case. However, the fact that a crime was unintentional does not mean that the person who caused the death of another human being should be acquitted of responsibility and punishment. The type and severity of the punishment should be proportionate to the individual's level of responsibility and the circumstances in which the crime occurred, whether that punishment is a lengthy prison sentence or another punishment provided for by law.

It should be noted that when it comes to someone who intentionally, knowingly, and brutally kills another person, the discussion of their criminal responsibility is not the same as that of someone who caused a death without prior intent.

If the right to life is a fundamental value, then the victim's life has that same value.

Therefore, those who take another person's life cannot escape all responsibility and punishment merely by claiming that their act was unintentional. Furthermore, governments and societies have a responsibility to protect human life and to hold accountable those whose actions have resulted in the loss of another person's life.

Therefore, the death penalty is neither a general measure nor an absolute taboo!

Author: Gouya Roshan

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