Punishment is in the news these days.  In Muslim countries the suspicion of sex (belly dancers excepted ) outside of marriage and exposure of female bodily parts seem to enflame the male sensibilities and the result is blaming the victim.  Rape VICTIMS are punished because they must have done something bad to attract the attention of the rapist (s).  Lashing the person to be punished besides incarceration seems to be just about right in those countries.  One explanation that the punishment is not as bad as it might seem because the lasher keeps a copy of the Quran under his arm that will restrict the effect of the blows on his victims’ body.

But, this is not the subject of this essay.  It is bad enough to be caught and punished in a Muslim country but we are having a soul searching battle here in the U.S. over the concept of killing killers or traitors with a method that will not be “cruel and unusual”.  I have already offered the idea that the Death Penalty must go because it is a social waste.  The lives of those convicted are already forfeit.  Why not keep them alive and get some use out of them before nature causes their systems to shut down?

Here is a plan for altering the death penalty.  Since the death penalty seems to be ingrained in our enlightened society and there is presently a Supreme Court hold on executing a death row denizen in Florida, why not avoid “cruel and unusual” and make it “socially helpful and unusual”? Let us look at the process in this way:  The miscreant must die but he or she will eventually succumb as we all must.  But, before that, his or her body can be used to help his or her fellow men.  For instance – use the cells (stem are best) for the creation of other cells that can cure others with unrelenting diseases or conditions.   Organs can be painlessly removed and transplanted in patients dying without other solutions that work.

The prisoner who has transgressed society’s rules in the most heinous manner might be subject to the greatest number of operations on his or her body to atone for the crime.  Prisoners who have long prison sentences might opt for operations that would free them earlier.  In fact, the whole system of prisons where convicts rot just to remove them from the sight of the general public, could be transformed so they could serve a sentence including volunteering for medical research and actual help for some needy sick person.  The emphasis is moved from revenge and crimes committed in the name of punishment to rational and carefully thought out measures to not only protect the public but to make restitution a part of the process.  Punishment is satisfying to some. But consider pro-active measures to develop a socially helpful system in place of the present one.