O J’s Corner

No right to take away life

Man is the crown and glory of all creatures. Whether one believes in the biblical theory of creation or in evolution, there can be no two opinions that human beings are the best of the lot physically, mentally, intellectually and artistically. Can any human being give life to a dead person? Therefore, no human being has the right to snap out the life of another person.

No authority, no government, no institution can order execution of a human being. God forgives all fallible human beings. If he reckons the sins and crimes committed by each and every human being, there would have been only punishments. No human being would have been spared. The Creator knows that we are gullible.

Can someone sit in judgement and pronounce the death penalty for another human being? Many of the criminals are there in confinement because they have been caught. There are thousands of people who have committed wrongs and roaming around the society like sinless people only because they have not been caught.

I shudder at the thought of people being hanged, shot to death, electrocuted, given the lethal injection like that. Why can’t we spare them? Let them be segregated and allowed to live, if they are a menace to society. Why should we kill them? An aye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth theory does not hold good in the modern-day world. Human beings are frail. They cannot be wiped out.

This does not mean that all criminals should be let loose. There are ways of treating them for their crimes other than the death penalty.

Jesus Christ prayed for those who sent him to the Cross. There is no room for human beings to lead a life of hate, crime and ill-will.