If you could travel back in time and had the opportunity to kill Hitler as a baby knowing that then he grew up he would be responsible for the deaths of millions of people… Would you do is? Would that be justifiable? Today in my speech I will talk about three different perspectives to consider when deciding whether or not murder is justifiable?

My first point is Religous and cultural beliefs. In some cultures murder is justifiable For example in the Islamic Faith, according to the Prophet Muhammad, murder is justifiable if 1) a person has killed somebody unjustly 2) if a married person has had an affair or 3) if a Muslim was to discard his religion. In other cultures, revenge is justifiable even if the death is accidental. Christianity however, Has a very different perspective on killing. according to the Bible, one of Gods Ten Commandments is that out and that we should not kill or seek to get revenge because God is the ultimate judge and he will serve justice accordingly. Are all cultural belief systems right? What happens if we don’t agree with the beliefs of other cultures or religions? Not everybody is right, look at Hitler, he thought he was doing the right thing killing millions of people. And a Swedish scientist is proposing that Cannibalism is the only way to solve global warming. Who do you trust? In the book and then there were none Justice Wargrave takes the law into his own hands to seek revenge on the criminals who in his eyes had not received justice. Is that Justifiable if we take the law into our own hands or does it make society a safer place if we live by the justice system?

Another perspective to consider on whether murder is justifiable is war or defending your country. Many of millions of people throughout history have had to defend their homes and countries without a choice, and even kids barely old enough to hold a weapon have been forced to fight and suffer the emotional scars of war for the rest of their lives? So would you call that justifiable? Or was Desmond Dos right, The medic from True story Hacksaw ridge who wanted to serve his country but refused to kill or hold a weapon. Instead of serving as a medic and saving the lives of hundreds of injured soldiers including the enemy as well. It seemed as though he had divine protection of NOT taking lives but saving them. On the other hand, what would happen if we didn’t protect our countries? We could not feel safe and would have to live with the fear of others taking over our countries. People would become more greedy and the world would become less safe. 

The final point I wanted to discuss is the Death Penalty. Is it justifiable to kill someone for their crimes? An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. One mans blood for another. According to a study carried out at Pepperdine University in America which researched the effects of the death penalty on lowering crime rates. Over a 26 year period using data from the FBI each execution that is carried out is correlated to about 74 fewer murders the following year. The results showed a clear negative correlation to when the executions carried out increase the murders the next year decreased and when the executions decrease Murder increases. A study shows that the death penalty in North Carolina costs around 2.16 million dollars more than it would to sentence someone to life in prison, per case!! This is costing taxpayers huge sums of money. So is it really worth killing someone? What if they changed their life around in prison? There have been many cases where someone who has committed murder has been sentenced to life in prison over the death penalty and changed their life around for the better and have ended changing others lives as well. I heard recently that the man guilty of killing 50 people in Christchurch has pleaded not guilty for unjustifiable murders. In such a case is it right that this becomes such a long drawn out and expensive process for the families involved or would he be worthy of the death penalty?