Summation

To end the debate, we will take our final opportunity to summarize the main issues at hand, and restate our arguments. The major issues are: what rights, if any, a prisoner sentenced to death is entitled to; what is right under the practice of medical ethics; the debt to society owed by prisoners who are sentenced to death; and finally if conducting experiments on criminals convicted to the death sentence qualifies for protection under the 8th amendment (cruel and unusual punishment). Let us start by tackling the first issue. Our side restates that it is acceptable to infringe on the rights of criminals sentenced to the death penalty in order to save massive quantity of life. The opposition has challenged this stance by arguing that these criminals deserve the same rights as other prisoners, namely natural human rights and more specifically the right to consent for medical testing. We disagree with this stance because of the principle decision the courts make when sentencing criminals to death in the first place. We can all agree that the protection of one’s life, is one of the most, if not most, fundamental natural rights in existence. It is self-evident and one that we try to uphold given almost any circumstance. However, some crimes are so vile and offensive to society that we have no choice but to make the decision to execute the prisoner. In these special cases, we put such criminals in a separate classification of entitlements. They lose their right to life, and therefore, cannot be discussed in the same realm as other prisoners. While we still protect many of their rights, they are the easiest group to target for medical testing without consent because we have already decided they do not have the right to life. The next issue is what is right under the practice of medical ethics. We feel that medical ethics is a guide, meant to offer advice and rules for medical practitioners. However, in some cases there is no clear right or wrong, just better or worse. In the case we have proposed, testing on subjects without their consent is a violation of medical ethics. But, the reason we argue for allowing it is because not developing a pandemic vaccine as fast as possible may cost millions of people their lives. This is also a violation of medical ethics. The opposition’s weighing of issues in medical ethics is far too narrow, and does not admit that in the real world issues are almost never black and white. This is the difference between ethics in theory and ethics in practice. The third issue we will summarize is the argument that prisoners sentenced to death owe society a debt. This debt is based on two independent factors: the cost to the society they have tolled, and the good they can do by being forced to comply with the pandemic vaccine tests. The price they have cost society is two-fold. On the one hand the death and destruction they caused is not quantifiable. Wrecking lives and causing damage to people that can never be repaid. On the other hand, in order to protect them from causing further damage, the state is forced to give them a fair trial and then support their basic needs, both of which cost taxpayers considerable sums of money. The second side is the good they can do by becoming test subjects for pandemic vaccines. With millions of lives at stake in the early part of a vaccine outbreak, having a group which can be tested on without consent could be the difference maker between life or death for millions of people. Therefore, we feel justified in passing a law that gives the state the right to conduct these tests on death-row inmates without their consent. The opposition totally ignored that harms that those prisoners bring to society. These prisoners are extremely dangerous and offensive to the society. Most of these prisoners are serial killers. And in this debate, the opposition got lost several times. They argued on capital punishment and prison inmates in general. They got back to this debate after we reminded them. Capital punishment is already legalized in 37 states of US, which is not relevant to this debate. And as we stated that we are also on the side of protecting basic rights of normal prisoners. However, we think, extreme criminals should be treated in a different way, which is misunderstood as “discrimination” by the opposition. Under our justice, we weigh what prisoners do and decide how much punishment they deserve. This is definitely not discrimination. This is justice! The final issue is a prisoner’s guaranteed right for protection from cruel and unusual punishment. The medical testing on prisoners is not a punishment to them in the first place. It is a way that our government gives those death-penalized prisoners a chance to pay back the society. Medical experiments on prisoners are not cruel or unusual. As we have argued, they are merely replicated experiments already conducted on the general public, albeit without the consent of the test subjects. Since we have already taken away the right these individuals have to their own life, we make the case that we can extend the underlying principle to deny those same people the right to consent to such tests. In much the same way we have methods to execute someone “humanely”, we would propose that the tests are conducted in a similar manner that is not cruel or unusual according to the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution. Adjudicators, you have clearly seen that opposition failed to make their points and our arguments stand firmly at the end of day. Again, we here re-propose that this House should allow medical experiments on prisoners without consent under the supervision of U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.