How do you punish a murderer? Someone takes a life, whether remorseful or not, is still a murderer.

Do you take the murderer’s life? Does this bring back the murdered? Does this do anything but make a murderer out of the whole of society? If you think a life is precious… then is not all life precious?

I have debated this issue with myself over the years… going from “lock them up” for life to roast them and toast them.

Many look upon abortion as murder. Yet, a fetus is not a person yet. A fetus is life though. It is only later this life becomes a person, much later. I think abortion should be rare but available, but not on demand.

What about the hardened criminal, the murderer who will always be a murderer? A scoundrel so foul that even life in prison would be too good a fate. Give him/her a choice instead? Let them choose to end their own life Kevorkian style or be welded into a cell from which there is no escape. We certainly could not risk a cell that can be opened or closed… that presents an opportunity, however small, that this piece of scum, this horrible excuse of a creature masquerading as a human being, to escape. We can’t have that. Lock them up, weld them in. Every so often let them consider the alternative option initially offered. Otherwise, provide food, limited access to entertainment, and constant reminders of what the monster has done. Visits by family? Only by monitor, never touching. Letters? Only to family, and carefully screened. Medical? Only that which can be administered through bars. Is that too harsh? Is murder harsh? No need to give comfort to someone so horrible that they would kill a human being.

There, let them make up their own mind. Let them choose death or solitary confinement, harsh and unforgiving. Don’t make society into murderers.