[ExI] punishment

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/3/27 Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com>:
> On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 2:25 PM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> The fact that prisoners are not allowed to suicide does not seem to me
>> to be because it's considered "too easy an escape", but rather because
>> death is seen as a very, very bad thing.
>
> Nothing wrong with that, as it is a very, very bad thing the loss of
> liberty, but what has it to do with allowing life prisoners to opt for
> execution? They would be in the best possible position to assess their own
> personal preferences, wouldn't they?

I don't know of any societies where people are told, "OK, fine" when
they announce they wish to kill themselves, at least not unless they
fulfil certain strict criteria. The same considerations that apply to
other suicidal people should also apply to prisoners.



-- 
Stathis Papaioannou