Murders are unacceptable in our society. People think murders are never Justified. However, in some situations, people kill others for reasons that they think are warranted. The newspaper article “Compassionate homicide: The law and Robert Ultimate and the short story “Gentlemen, your verdict” offer two perspectives on this issue. They are both good examples of where murders are Justified. In “Gentlemen your Verdict”, the captain poisoned 15 unmarried men so that 5 married men could live.
The Captain did not kill 15 men and himself for no reason, because there was only enough oxygen left on the submarine for only 5 crew before help arrived, the captain was forced to make a difficult decision. Therefore he chose to sacrifice the lives of the single men so that the 15 married men could survive. Allowing these 5 men to survive is a way of honoring the dead, if no one survives then their story would be lost at sea.
What the captain did was for the greater benefit, allowing all the married men alive saves the lives of the families as well. The captain left the final entente to the 5 married men: “Gentlemen, It Is for you to decide, guilty or not guilty’ (p. 25), the captain said this because he was absolutely responsible for killing 15 men but he was also Justified because I feel that he made the right choice In this moral dilemma. This Is why we can’t Just say the captain Is guilty.
In “Compassionate homicide: The law and Robert Ultimate”. Robert Ultimate killed his daughter because he could not bear to watch her suffer from a severe form a cerebral palsy. Robert planned this murder In order to save his daughter from a life of suffering. He was harder with first-degree murder but convicted of second-degree murder one year later. After a lengthy debate, they came up with the term “Compassionate homicide. ” Ultimate was charged with second degree murder, he was released from Call after 10 years.
The case Is so debatable because on the one hand “the murder was a rare act of homicide that was committed for caring and altruistic reasons,”(page 3, line l). Let was because of his love and compassion for his daughter that he wanted to end her life,but on the other hand some people believe that ‘there Is no dispute that though err 3,nine 8) ,they think that although she Is In pain and endless suffering, her life still had value and quality. Nobody has the right to end her life.
Both of these pieces are examples of Justified murder. Len my pollen,there are situations that arise where people are forced to act Like God to decide who live or del. Laws can give us a scale to Judge the creme,but laws are written by humans. We can’t say that our laws are perfect because there will always be exceptions,such as “compassionate homicide”. Of course,we must strictly obey our laws,as In the case of these two articles,there will be times where we must take actions which are above the law.
