No Cruel and Unusual Punishment

The opposition brings to the debate the a prisoner’s guaranteed right for protection from cruel and unusual punishment. This, of course, is an established principle both internationally and domestically in the United States of America. As the opposition states, it is crucial to many aspects of the justice system to not violate certain natural rights of prisoners, no matter what their crimes may be. Our main concern in rebuttal to this point is that the principle of cruel and unusual punishment is highly subjective in nature, and one that calls for debate almost any time it is to be used. The opposition is very fast to paint a grim picture of the testing for medical vaccines and call the test subjects “guinea pigs”. However, the reality is far from the truth. In fact, there is almost no specific evidence given to explain exactly how or why these types of experiments are cruel or unusual. Quite the contrary, they are humane and ordinary. They happen all the time in the general pubic and represent an important pre-requisite for medical innovation. For further evidence we look to the supreme court of the United States. Taken from wikipedia: In Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), Justice Brennan wrote, "There are, then, four principles by which we may determine whether a particular punishment is 'cruel and unusual'." The "essential predicate" is "that a punishment must not by its severity be degrading to human dignity," especially torture. "A severe punishment that is obviously inflicted in wholly arbitrary fashion." "A severe punishment that is clearly and totally rejected throughout society." "A severe punishment that is patently unnecessary." Continuing, he wrote that he expected that no state would pass a law obviously violating any one of these principles, so court decisions regarding the Eighth Amendment (of U.S. Constitution) would involve a "cumulative" analysis of the implication of each of the four principles. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Death_penalty_for_rape]] We see here a basic understanding of the underlying principles behind the Eighth amendment, and the task at hand by the opposition to prove that medical testing is indeed “cruel or unusual”. We strongly believe, given the criteria stated above, that it is not. Our main point is that these tests are given to normal citizens everyday, with the only difference being their consent. Unlike torture, testing vaccines is commonplace and something that is required for medical improvement of treatments. It is not arbitrary because it is scoped to only death row inmates who where it has already been decided that they owe their life to the state. When we think about forced medical experiments, the first image that pops into our heads is usually the treatment of the Jews under the Nazi regime in Germany during WW2. This is NOT what we are proposing. Our government is greatly concerned about health and protection of it’s citizens from pandemic outbreaks. In order to be fully prepared, we are determined to segment a group of test subjects to be utilized in emergency situations. The testing would only be done under medical supervision, and in essence would be almost the exact same as testing done to consenting volunteers. It is very difficulty for anyone to see how this act in itself is cruel or unusual. There is necessity for this due to the time it takes to collect a consenting sample in order to perform the tests. In order to overcome this problem, we have proposed using death row inmates as non-consenting subjects for reasons explained many times already in this debate. We would also like to comment directly to the opposition’s example of Guantanamo Bay. This is a military prison operated by a branch of the US Navy. It is separate from the US justice system and therefore the example is not relevant to this discussion.