Would you turn your child in if they face the death penalty

I hope I'd have the moral courage to turn my child in. In theory I would, but in practice would I try to find justification that his or her taking of a life wasn't as bad as the state taking my child's? Luckily in the UK the death penalty isn't an option, so yes I think I would have to report my own child. If someone of mine was murdered I'd want the friends or family of the guilty one to turn them in.

If my child was guilty of this sort of premeditated killing then yes I would turn them in.
I wouldn't want them to be responsible for any further deaths.

I don't think anyone has 'accepted' the idea of their child killing. Nobody has done so.

What people are saying is that a mother's instinct is to protect her own child, and to turn him (or her) in knowing that he would be killed by the state would be too much to ask in the face of that instinct. That doesn't mean we don't understand that killing is wrong, or that the life of the dead person has value - it just means that we would struggle to put principle over the love we have for our children. In my case (I can't speak for others) if I knew that my child had killed for fun, or that there was a good chance he would do it again, I would probably feel differently, but it would still be difficult.

Let me turn this round? If we've established that rationality should trump emotion in your view, would you report your children for a traffic violation or a similar minor infraction? Photocopying a knitting pattern or getting off a train before buying a ticket? If not, why not? Where is your line in the sand? Selling drugs? Burglary? Shoplifting? Tax or benefit fraud? Would knowing that there was a death penalty make a difference?

Basically, are you of the opinion that every crime should be reported in case it escalates, and to protect others from becoming victims, or do you judge for yourself whether a crime should always be punished, and take into account the likely penalty? Would it make a difference if the perpetrator is your child or someone else's?

I thought I'd quoted Lathyrus's post upthread, but it hasn't shown up. Mine is in reply to that, though.

I think I might turn a child in if they had done something very wicked like murder, but not if it meant they would face the death penalty.

sodapop

If my child was guilty of this sort of premeditated killing then yes I would turn them in.
I wouldn't want them to be responsible for any further deaths.

If your child is facing the death penalty you'd be responsible for a death.

“If your child was facing the death penalty, you’d be responsible for a death”

That is why it would be so very hard. To be responsible for your own child’s death.

But if they killed again, you would also be responsible for a death or even many deaths.

There is no ducking the responsibility for death.

Only the decision of mine or somebody else.

The killer or the victim. You can’t save both.

I’m not ignoring your post doodledog but I feel that it’s verging on the angry/emotional.

So my post to worriedwell will be my last on this thread.

I was just debating really.

Lathyrus3

I’m not ignoring your post doodledog but I feel that it’s verging on the angry/emotional.

So my post to worriedwell will be my last on this thread.

I was just debating really.

I valued your comments Lathyrus3 but I get where you’re coming from, after offering opinions you don’t want it to become angry and emotional.I often feel the same way.

I think we would only know for sure how we would behave is if it happened, forcing us to decide.
I feel that I would turn in my AC in a case like the sniper shooting of a public figure. If an AC is prepared to kill because he hates a man’s opinions then he may well kill again.

Oh don't disappear, I thought this was an example of a really respectful debate.
Doodledogs post didn't read as angry to me .

Where does the line in the sand come?
I don’t know.
This thread was asking about turning your child in if you knew they’d killed especially if they would face the death penalty.

So it’s really not the same as all the other suggested situations.
E.g. I’d have no problem turning my child in for selling drugs (in this country), but turning him/her in to face the death penalty for deliberate killing. I hope I never have to make that decision.

It wasn't intended as angry or emotional. Just asking for the view from the other side. It's not an easy thing to justify, but I did you the courtesy of trying when questioned on my first response.

It's not very fair to suggest that people who would not send their child to his/her death don't value life, and then not answer (and in fact walk away) when you are asked to explain how far you would go down the road yourself.

I think if my son was drug dealing, stealing, etc the best thing to do as a parent would be to ensure he faced the consequences of his actions. We don't let children not understand that actions have consequences.
Fir example if there are any Archers fans on here I thought Neil and Susan did the right thing.

Mollygo

Where does the line in the sand come?
I don’t know.
This thread was asking about turning your child in if you knew they’d killed especially if they would face the death penalty.

So it’s really not the same as all the other suggested situations.
E.g. I’d have no problem turning my child in for selling drugs (in this country), but turning him/her in to face the death penalty for deliberate killing. I hope I never have to make that decision.

The death penalty definitely makes a difference.

I would struggle to hand in my child unless I really felt it necessary, but the suggestions I made were intended to be fairly random to show that it comes down to judgement in the end. My guess is that nobody is completely 'pure' when it comes to things like this. We make allowances for people we love, and some things bother us more than others.

There are those who would always put the law of the land ahead of everything, but I like to think they are few and far between. Would anyone report their child for photocopying a knitting pattern? I doubt it would get them a criminal record, so it would be a low-risk report at the other end of the scale from murder with the death penalty. OTOH, it's not the sort of 'crime' that most (maybe except knitting pattern designers) would put high on the list of things that upset them.

So what I'm saying is that these things are pretty much always 'emotional' rather than 'logical', as if logic dictates that crime should be reported then there should be no sliding scale.

I don't agree with the death penalty so no would not turn him or her in.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in a country that allows guns to be carried and that has different executions in so many states. No wonder the kids are mixed up.
Did not agree with a lot Charlie Kirk had to say especially about women, He was entitled to his views and right to express them. Talking is the only way not violence. How do children grow up so indoctrinated an viewing life so cheap?
How do you live with yourself having your child executed, its barbaric.

Mothers instinct, love, and the big urge to protect would come into it for me. Plus, like in Utah where they have the death penalty (state sanctioned murder) which I don't agree with makes turning my adult son in a hard NO.

I would because some other hateful person is going to shoot him before he gets a fair trial if he is still at large.
Depending on the laws in Utah he might get life in jail in place of death penalty. If this were to happen his family still have their son to visit. He will have a lifetime behind bars to contemplate what he did.

Doodledog

It wasn't intended as angry or emotional. Just asking for the view from the other side. It's not an easy thing to justify, but I did you the courtesy of trying when questioned on my first response.

It's not very fair to suggest that people who would not send their child to his/her death don't value life, and then not answer (and in fact walk away) when you are asked to explain how far you would go down the road yourself.

I didn’t intend it to be a frustrating walking away. I apologise for that.

I felt (wrongly) that you were more emotionally involved in the question than I was. I am quite capable of taking up the argument for the other side if I thought that was the one where people were not thinking it through. I was just enjoying debate. Very irritating 😳

Where would I draw the line?
I guess the answer is in the consequences of my turning away and the cost of that to other people’s lives.

I wouldn’t ask other people to pay the cost of preserving the life of a killer because the killer was my child.

Thanks for returning, and for your explanation.

Turning someone in is objectively the right thing to do, but how many people are objective when it comes to their children?

I'm not at all defending murder of anyone, but in circumstances where it is most unlikely to happen again, so consequences for others would be unlikely, and in the knowledge that my child would be executed I don't think I could stand back and do the right thing.

I can say with hand on heart, however, that my son is a peaceable chap and most unlikely to put me in a position where my words are tested .

Everyone here is thinking like a product of our culture, which is untterly irrelevant to considering how this father thought and why he reacted the way he did.

Probably the majority of the population in the US support capital punishment and can see absolutely no problem with it. many would see its use extended. Ok, so you do nto think like that, neither do I, but we are not Americans.

Equally many of those who support capital punishment, have right wing views, so far to the right of most of us we cannot see them through binoculars. I can see that a man who is a rightwing political supporter, who supports the use of guns and capital punishment might be so revolted by the knowledge that his son, his won son, has shot and killed, not some fleeing burglar, or other person for whom killing is all they deserve, but one of the icons of his life, the great white hope for the future. He may well be so devastated, so horrified, so revolted by his son's actions, he thinkshe would be better dead.

How you feel how you would react in this situation may be interesting, but predictable, but they are irrelevant. The real iinterest, is what motivates this man's father to do what he did. And his view is as valid as yours.

His father had to hand him over.. so would I. It doesn't mean condoning the death penalty. It means following the justice system of the state/ country you live in.

I wouldn't turn a child or any relative of mine in. There used to be a rule that a wife couldn't testify against her husband nor he against her.
I don't know what became of that law but it seems sensible to me.

Grammaretto

I wouldn't turn a child or any relative of mine in. There used to be a rule that a wife couldn't testify against her husband nor he against her.
I don't know what became of that law but it seems sensible to me.

That's not the case; you misunderstood the law.

You've also confused "testify" with "reporting",

M0nica, with all due respect your post is deeply condescending, and ignores the fact that everyone here is responding to the OP, which is not asking us to justify the actions of the father of the man who shot Charlie Kirk in the US. We are answering the question of whether we would hand in our children where there is the death penalty, as there is in Utah.