• Gitonga
    80
    Modern medicine, drugs take like 10 years to be approved and the main issue is they take awhile before they reach human trials, however I propose instead of there being a life sentence or death penalty for prisoners we should perform medical experiments on them, the more medical trials we perform the lower their sentence.

    Eg for every 5 trials they reduce your sentence by one year or something like that

    So basically instead of life for murder you get like 40 years.. During those 40 years lots of experiments shall be done on you and eventually we'll end up saving more lives.

    I'm talking all kinds of experiments like infecting the worst criminals with HIV then giving them experimental drugs or cancer via radiation and giving them experimental drugs.

    Seems like a better use of prisoners than just killing them or letting them rot.. As well as a much better deterrent.

    Not all prisoners should be experimented on, just the worst.
  • Daniel
    458
    You should be experimented on for propositions like that.
  • tim wood
    8.7k
    Never mind their humanity. Or, ultimately, yours.

    And I believe - no evidence in hand and subject to correction - that some prisoners can and do volunteer to be guinea pigs.
  • Outlander
    1.8k
    Goes back to the capital punishment argument(s). One need only look at your avatar and see a famous case. Hm. Below this post too. Even today, not quite all the time but more often than we'd like to think, you have DNA exonerations and substantial settlements for the wrongly convicted. I'm sure the strictly worldly reasons why this probably should not happen are present.

    It's hard to say if people are more easily manipulated or more prone to manipulate others. Eitherway you get people used to something that can be grievously abused the more likely it will be.
  • zookeeper
    73
    Too prone to abuse, too irreversible when it turns out a prisoner was innocent after all, too unfair due to variability (some would have easier/worse experiments conducted on them than others).

    Not all prisoners should be experimented on, just the worst.Gitonga

    Why not?
  • Mac
    59
    There are a ton of consequences that I don't think have been taken into consideration here.
  • Outlander
    1.8k
    Now perhaps... and it still would be unthinkable to present to a truly innocent man in contrast to a nearly equally indeterminate normal sentence.. but what if... you could give the person a new identity. Complete with a past, memories, etc. That makes them for whatever reason subservient to a particular institution or function in society. By any and all apparent choice. Of course. Some will say that's getting off easy.
  • Wheatley
    2.3k
    I'm talking all kinds of experiments like infecting the worst criminals with HIV then giving them experimental drugs or cancer via radiation and giving them experimental drugs.

    Seems like a better use of prisoners than just killing them or letting them rot.. As well as a much better deterrent.

    Not all prisoners should be experimented on, just the worst.
    Gitonga
    Seems like you advocate Utalitarianism.
  • Gitonga
    80
    Why I'm not a criminal?
  • Gitonga
    80
    Well you said if it turns out the prisoner is innocent and I'm saying for example by the worst I mean gunmen who shot down people in broad daylight with tonnes of witnesses.

    As for the other excuses you gave, why aren't you thinking more about the results? Like how many people we'll end up saving from cancer, HIV and various other diseases?
  • Gitonga
    80
    Sound like you advocate Utalitarianism.Wheatley

    Yes
  • Gitonga
    80
    And I believe - no evidence in hand and subject to correction - that some prisoners can and do volunteer to be guinea pigs.tim wood

    So are you agreeing with me?
  • Wheatley
    2.3k
    Now you just have to get the approval of congress.
  • Gitonga
    80
    One need only look at your avatar and see a famous caseOutlander

    What does my Avatar have to do with it?

    DNA exonerations and substantial settlements for the wrongly convictedOutlander

    Well I offer 2 solutions, 1 people could volunteer for the trials or 2 it could only be for those criminals that we're dead sure did it... Like tonnes of whiteness, footage, DNA etc, hec people who even admit to it.
  • Gitonga
    80
    No You're the one not taking into account the consequences of letting all the innocent people die from diseases that we could've cured by now.
  • Mac
    59
    I just don't think that a prisoner should be considered a slave who's life is only defined as punishment for the atrocities they commited.
  • Gitonga
    80
    The long term political goal is to establish either a technocracy or Plato's Republic. To do this it starts by convincing one person at a time.
  • Gitonga
    80
    I wasn't talking about thatMac

    I'm just saying you weigh the pros and the cons, the pros win.
  • Wheatley
    2.3k

    Good luck with that. :up:
  • Mac
    59
    once again, I just don't think that a prisoner should be considered a slave who's life is only defined by punishment for the atrocities they commited. No matter how egregious the crime.
  • Gitonga
    80
    isn't life imprisonment or capital punishment slavery?
  • tim wood
    8.7k
    No. "We should perform..."
  • Mac
    59
    Also a word of advice for using this forum; Remember that people here attack ideas, not the person who has the idea. This forum is made for ideas to be challenged. Defensiveness at people's criticism sends the message that you care more about being right than having good ideas.
  • Mac
    59
    Yes I would argue it is. Do you think we have a perfect justice system?
  • Frank Apisa
    2.1k
    Not the most outrageous idea I've ever heard...although not fully baked. I could see asking for volunteers from individuals serving long sentences...with a reward commensurate with the degree of danger the person faces. (Certainly more than you proposed.)

    The "volunteer" part has to be a must.

    As for people erroneously convicted...life is not fair. If a "voluntary medical experiment" option were not available for those rightly convicted and those erroneously convicted...there would still be people both rightly and erroneously convicted serving sentences.

    Yeah...not a horrible idea. Just needs a bit more baking.
  • Banno
    23.4k
    You want all your medical experiments done on black folk?

    (Too dark? You know its true.)
  • Gitonga
    80
    I said prisoners not black folk
  • Banno
    23.4k
    Yeah, about that...
  • Gitonga
    80
    how am I being defensive, I'm merely countering your point
  • Gitonga
    80
    no the justice system isn't perfect but I don't see how this idea makes it less perfect
  • Gitonga
    80
    omg the world is soo much bigger than the United States you know...
bold
italic
underline
strike
code
quote
ulist
image
url
mention
reveal
youtube
tweet
Add a Comment

Welcome to The Philosophy Forum!

Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.