"Why Not" Con't

This, from MOJ-reader and 1L Stephen Braunlich:

"It seems to me that even if the death penalty has deterrent effects the faithful Catholic cannot find in that deterrent a reason to support capital punishment.  The thrust of the argument is that "Punishing X for murder by taking his life deters others from murdering.  Deterring others from murdering is good.  Therefore capital punishment is good."  That rationale would excuse the utilization of one person in order to prevent something an ill for which they are not guilty.  In this way it strikes me as being similar to the killing of an embryonic human in the name of research which would cure Parkinson's in another.  While a good end may come (either preventing a murder or Parkinson's) in both cases the means to achieve it is the utilization of another's body against their will (killing them).

Turning to the Catechism, "the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor."  (CCC 2267).  If I'm reading this correctly, the Church is teaching that capital punishment may only be permitted when it is applied to the murderer after his deadly act and is the only way to protect the population from future murders committed by him.  This is very different from applying capital punishment to murderer X in order to prevent not-yet-murderer Y from killing people."