边沁功利主义死刑观的伦理审视

On Bentham's Utilitarian Critique of Death Penalty: An Ethic Perspective

边沁是完全从功利论的角度主张彻底废除死刑的,但其理论存在着不足:以"感觉"为基础的功利论极易变种为支持死刑的理论根据,以功利优先于正义为特征的刑罚目的论给惩罚无辜留下空间,在生命观上强调人之生命的工具价值而忽视人之生命的神圣性。功利论应将"人之生命的神圣性"引入其理论,这样就可在抽象的刑罚制度层面将死刑排除掉,最终确保在以分配正义为原则的具体刑罚制度适用中彻底废除死刑。

Bentham advocates the abolition of death penalty from the perspective of utilitarianism. However, due to the theoretic inadequacies, utilitarianism is likely to be used as a theoretic basis for death penalty. The teleology of criminal penalty characterized by material gains over justice leaves much room for punishing the innocent. Therefore, utilitarianism should adopt the idea of ＂the holiness of life＂ so as to abolish death penalty in concrete application of criminal systems.