The use of capital punishment, frequently known as the death penalty, is highly controversial. There are many organizations worldwide, such as Amnesty International, and country-specific, such as the ACLU, that have abolition of the death penalty as a fundamental purpose. In the classic doctrine of natural rights as expounded by for instance Locke and Blackstone, on the other hand, it is an important idea that the right to life can be forfeited.
Famous quotes containing the words capital, punishment and/or debate:
“There was a sound of revelry by night,
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—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
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—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)