NO to Death Penalty: People Can Change

One of the main precepts in Buddhist teachings is not to kill or even harm something that is alive. There are a series of Buddhist principles that talk about Buddhist opposition to the death penalty; it definitely includes no deliberate taking of the life of any person. We believe in the universal law of cause and effect, once all humans understand this law, we will be in a more forgiving world. Killing other human being to make justice for their acts is not the way to make them pay for what they did. Things and people are always changing; there is the implication that all beings and all people possess a capacity to transform themselves. People who have done horrible crimes and murders and even rapes have the possibility to change and lead their life to a positive path that will make the world a better place. Everyone needs to have compassion and wisdom to understand that death penalty is NOT the way to make people learn from their mistakes. Death Penalty fails to serve to stop violence and murder; it raises the seed of violence that exists within each of us. Before execution we should consider if the criminals are negative harmful people. We should try to prevent such horrible acts in society; there are other ways before getting to death penalty. Dalai Lama expressed “The death penalty fulfills a preventive function, but it is also very clearly a form of revenge. It is an especially severe form of punishment because it is so final. The human life is ended and the executed person is deprived of the opportunity to change, to restore the harm done or compensate for it.”

-Gaby Gonzalez (Buddhist)