Capital punishment

Capital punishment is the legally authorised killing of someone as punishment. Finnis' Natural Law theory can be seen to give mixed messages about capital punishment because the seven basic goods and nine requirements of practical reason do not give specific ethical guidelines - some can be seen to support capital punishment and some can be seen to oppose it

The basic goods and requirements that support capital punishment

• Friendship and sociability - if a friend is affected by a killing or is a potential target, then it could be argued that it is in our interest to support capital punishment for the perpetrator
• Practical reasonableness - is it not obvious that a murderer, by taking someone else's life…