John Kavanaugh

The intentional killing of another person, including capital punishment, cannot be justified, John Kavanaugh asserts in the following viewpoint. Kavanaugh contends that capital punishment, as with other murders, violates basic ethical principles because it requires the depersonalization of its intended victims. According to Kavanaugh, no person should be treated as an expendable object. Kavanaugh is a columnist for America, a Catholic magazine.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What are some of the examples of depersonalization provided by Kavanaugh?
2. What is the “limit situation in ethics,” according to the author?
3. How does Kavanaugh view the right to defend oneself"

There comes a point when a human being has forfeited all claims to being human. Who knows when? But that lump of flesh has ceased to be human and has become a cancer on the body of...