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Kelly asked:

For a college paper I am supposed to find out on the internet what Aristotle would have thought about
these subjects:

*The death penalty

*Abortion

*Minorities

*Assisted Suicide

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*
Aristotle wouldn't have approved of the death penalty. He said "Punishment is inflicted for the sake of
the person punished", so it should be corrective.

*
Aristotle was against killing. He did think that pleasure and the good were things we should strive for.
If a foetus was found to be so severely handicapped that it would develop into a person with no hope
of pleasure he would still not be for abortion, but would hope that this person would bear its ills with
as much nobility as possible.

*
What is a minority? "Minorities", I suppose, are ethnic or sexual, but surely criminals and vegetarians
should be included. You should object to this part of the question. Aristotle would think that all
minority groups should be treated as fellow citizens — consistently with this we don't kill murderers
but show them a way to redemption.

*
Aristotle thought that pain is something to be avoided and so may have approved of assisted suicide
— assuming the suicidal person was in pain — but it is unlikely. In Nicomachean EthicsAristotle says
that even though suicide is against the law a person who kills himself is acting contrary to the state
but not acting unjustly towards himself. However, he thought that killing another being is wrong in
general and would probably think the motive of kindness would not justify assisted suicide.

I hope that this is of some help. I expect you are doing other internet searches and if you come up
with different results the work you have to do for your paper will become more interesting.

Rachel Browne