Birth Control Essay examples -- Contraceptives, Birth Control Essays

People have been having sex since the beginning of time; after all, how would we be here today if they had not. Yet, there has also been the pervasive problem of how to gain control over reproduction, in essence, how to prevent unwanted pregnancies. This is a challenge, even today, in an age of technological advancements, mass communication and education. However, through the years, the spread of information and awareness surrounding birth control has resulted in its increased availability and an improvement in the lives of both men and women. People are very clever and ingenious and have, throughout history, devised a variety of birth control methods. The earliest known contraceptive came from the Egyptian women of around 1500 B.C. They were thought to have created a suppository of crocodile dung and honey. The acidity of the crocodile dung could, potentially, kill the sperm, and the stickiness of the honey was supposed to stop the sperm from entering the woman (Wikipedia 2). Other forms of suppositories also were used, ranging from olive oil and honey, to cloths soaked in vinegar. Women also used a variety of herbal abortifacients (which are used to induce abortion). They are â€Å"part of a folk culture of herbal medicine handed down among women for thousands of years† (London 2). One example of an abortifacient is the ancient French and German use of the root of worm fern. It was commonly called the â€Å"prostitute root† by the French (London 2). More modern abortifacients include turpentine, castor oil and ammonia, to name a few. Frighteningly, the ingestion of small amounts of poison was another tried method, including mercury and arsenic. A list of various additional, popular contraceptive methods included â€Å"withdrawal ... ...being challenged. Works Cited: 1) Gordon, Linda. Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right- A Social History of Birth Control in America. NY: Grossman Publishers, 1976. 2) London, Kathleen. Yale- New Haven Teachers Institute. The History of Birth Control. 2004. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1982/6/82.06.03.x.html 3) Oyler, Julie M.D. The History of Birth Control. University of Chicago Hospitals. 18 March 2003. http://imr.bsd.uchicago.edu/chiefs/History%20of%20Medicine/Birth%20Control_files/v3_document.htm 4) â€Å"Birth Control.† Wikipedia. 2004 Wikipedia- the free encyclopedia. 29 October 2004. 5) â€Å"Birth Control.† Houghton Mifflin. 2004 A Reader’s Companion to American History http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_009600_birthcontrol.htm

International Relations Essays -- Literary Analysis, Realism, Neo-Real

The first paradigm of international relations is the theory of Realism. Realism is focused on ideas of self-interest and the balance of power. Realism is also divided into two categories, classical realism and neo-realism. Famous political theorist, Hans Morgenthau was a classical realist who believed that national interest was based on three elements, balance of power, military force, and self interest (Kleinberg 2010, 32). He uses four levels of analysis to evaluate the power of a state. The first is that power and influence are not always the same thing. Influence means the ability to affect the decision of those who have the power to control outcomes and power is the ability to determine outcomes. An example of influence and power would be the UN’s ability to influence the actions of states within the UN but the state itself has the power to determine how they act. Morgenthau goes on to his next level of analysis in which he explains the difference in force and power in t he international realm. Force is physical violence, the use of military power but power is so much more than that. A powerful state can control the actions of another state with the threat of force but not actually need to physical force. He believed that the ability to have power over another state simply with the threat of force was likely to be the most important element in analysis the power of as state (Kleinberg 2010, 33-34). Morgenthau goes onto his third method of analysis which is reviewing a state’s usable and unusable power. The most popular example of this is the possession of nuclear weaponry. Nuclear capabilities and that threat of their use is a form of useable power for states like the US and Russia but not for states with underdeveloped nu... ...th 2001). Roth argues that the concept of international jurisdiction is not a new idea but was exercised by the US government in the 1970 after an aircraft hijacking. Also the war crime courts established after the end of World War II exercised international jurisdiction. In fact the Geneva Convention states that is a person regardless of their nationality should be brought before the court of any state in which that person has committed grave breaches of law and convention. Roth states that the concept of international jurisdiction is not a new one but that only in recent years have states been willing to act on universal jurisdiction and go after criminals of the international community regardless of their stating or power within the international community. Roth believes in the ability and authority of international organizations and institutions (Roth 2001). International Relations Essays -- Literary Analysis, Realism, Neo-Real The first paradigm of international relations is the theory of Realism. Realism is focused on ideas of self-interest and the balance of power. Realism is also divided into two categories, classical realism and neo-realism. Famous political theorist, Hans Morgenthau was a classical realist who believed that national interest was based on three elements, balance of power, military force, and self interest (Kleinberg 2010, 32). He uses four levels of analysis to evaluate the power of a state. The first is that power and influence are not always the same thing. Influence means the ability to affect the decision of those who have the power to control outcomes and power is the ability to determine outcomes. An example of influence and power would be the UN’s ability to influence the actions of states within the UN but the state itself has the power to determine how they act. Morgenthau goes on to his next level of analysis in which he explains the difference in force and power in t he international realm. Force is physical violence, the use of military power but power is so much more than that. A powerful state can control the actions of another state with the threat of force but not actually need to physical force. He believed that the ability to have power over another state simply with the threat of force was likely to be the most important element in analysis the power of as state (Kleinberg 2010, 33-34). Morgenthau goes onto his third method of analysis which is reviewing a state’s usable and unusable power. The most popular example of this is the possession of nuclear weaponry. Nuclear capabilities and that threat of their use is a form of useable power for states like the US and Russia but not for states with underdeveloped nu... ...th 2001). Roth argues that the concept of international jurisdiction is not a new idea but was exercised by the US government in the 1970 after an aircraft hijacking. Also the war crime courts established after the end of World War II exercised international jurisdiction. In fact the Geneva Convention states that is a person regardless of their nationality should be brought before the court of any state in which that person has committed grave breaches of law and convention. Roth states that the concept of international jurisdiction is not a new one but that only in recent years have states been willing to act on universal jurisdiction and go after criminals of the international community regardless of their stating or power within the international community. Roth believes in the ability and authority of international organizations and institutions (Roth 2001).

A Semiparametric Analysis of the Relationship of Body Mass Index to Mortality Essay

Gronniger, J. T. (2006). A Semiparametric Analysis of the Relationship of Body Mass Index to Mortality. American Journal of Public Health, 96(1), 173–178 This article review is on the above cited work. The purpose of Gronniger’s work was to check the adequacy of conventional Body Mass Index (BMI) categories for planning public health programs to reduce mortality. Body Mass Index (BMI) is a measure of an adult’s weight in relation to height, and it is calculated metrically as weight divided by height squared (kg/m2)† (Foster). This work is timely and important because of the wide publicity given to the contribution of surplus body weight to mortality and morbidity, with numerous accounts showing that obesity causes hundreds of thousands of excess deaths and billions of dollars in excess medical spending each year. Obesity has been put on par with smoking as a growing health threat and has become the focal point of many policy initiatives. The studies cited by Gronniger on the subject showed that individuals with BMIs of 20 to 25 kg/m2 were regarded as the reference population and compared their health outcomes with those among overweight (BMIs of 25 to 30 kg/m2) and obese (BMIs of 30 kg/m2 and above) individuals. While Gronniger agrees that obesity is associated with clear increases in risk of mortality, and that overweight is a risk factor for obesity and thus should best be avoided, he states that â€Å"relying on broad categories such as overweight and obesity could provide misleading estimates of BMI’s association with mortality if that association is heterogeneous or not monotonic within categories†. He further stated that the definition of these categories â€Å"grew out of a consensus among various health bodies (including the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) that health risks increase with increasing body weight above a BMI of 25 and become serious near a BMI of 30†. This he showed in his study. Summary For the study, the author used the 1987 Cancer Control and 1989 Diabetes supplements of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to obtain baseline personal and biometric information on the survey respondents which were linked to the NHIS Multiple Cause of Death File, where mortality follow-up information was obtained. Information from this source was available for a total of 33,558 individuals, of whom 1,109 were dead or presumed dead. He then constructed nonlinear estimates of the association between BMI and mortality using a semiparametric regression technique. The results showed that the mortality risk among â€Å"normal† weight men (i. . , those in the BMI range of 20 to 25 kg/m2) was as high as that among men in the mild obesity category (BMIs of 30–35 kg/m2), with a minimum risk observed at a BMI of approximately 26 kg/m2. Among women, the mortality risk was smallest at approximately 23 to 24 kg/m2, with the risk increasing steadily with BMIs above 27 kg/m2. The results also suggested negligible risk differences with minor differences in weight for much of the population. This is contrary to predictions of high mortality risks among overweight individuals as the â€Å"optimum† BMI appeared to be 26 to 27 overall, 23 to 24 for women, and 26 to 27 for men. Interestingly, mortality did not increase sharply with BMI until the range of about 27 or above (33–35 for men), which is well into the range of overweight and obesity. The semiparametric mortality estimates also showed that in US adults the mortality among clinically underweight individuals is quite high, although estimates near the tails of the BMI distribution are imprecise as a result of small local sample sizes. Critique The semiparametric approach used here provides a clearer picture of individual mortality risks because restrictive categories were eliminated and the data were allowed to shape the functional form. Therefore the present results can better be used to consider broad trends over at least several BMI units and to contrast such trends with findings derived from categorical studies. Also the author in his work used information from a valid source from which a complete smoking data was not available. The respondents were only group as â€Å"current† or â€Å"not current† smokers. This would affect the result considering the effect of smoking habits on mortality. Another limitation in this study was the arbitrary character of the intercept estimates derived using the semiparametric approach which would result in complication in interpretation. This however does not cause bias in the results. The present study was also unable to solve the heterogeneity problem, as the BMI can be tied to manifold variables that influence mortality. Many of these omitted risk factors might be correlated with BMI, leading to misestimation and gross error in the calculation of the risk of increasing BMI itself. Therefore one can not actually identify the mortality-minimizing or â€Å"optimal† BMI from this study. Furthermore, this study involves single-point-in-time measures of BMI. Therefore there is no guarantee that losing weight will bring the mortality of a severely obese person’s to the optimal level. Therefore the optimal BMI is only based on the current weight. Finally because of the absence of standard errors, the semiparametric estimates presented here cannot be used in hypothesis testing. Thus the expected mortality at a BMI of 29. 99 cannot be statistically compared with the expected mortality at a BMI of 30. 01. Recommendations To give a more comprehensive result, the actual smoking habits of the sample group must be obtained and considered in the study because of its effect on mortality. Also there is little information about the underweight group in the study. Therefore a more thorough consideration of this group would be appropriate. Conclusion Notwithstanding the limitations in the study, it is a valid research as the results raise questions about whether overweight and mildly obese individuals are classified correctly under current health guidelines. Health professionals are therefore to consider the large number of people involved in the modest mortality differences between BMI units in drafting health guidelines and planning public health programs.

Lamb to the Slaughter- Movie Poster Essay

A dagger-pierced heart is usually associated with the Catholic Sacred Heart of Mary. It is known to represent the grieving mother of Christ, who is also often called the Lady of Sorrows. However, the heart also migrated into a â€Å"darker† side; a modern day symbol of vengeance and cruelty. But the real power of the image of a dagger through the heart is a combination of both, each known in their individual rights. The heart is seen as the seat of emotions, the core of every person, as well as love and passion. The dagger has long represented a stealthy weapon of choice, which is easily concealed and quiet. Roald Dahl’s, â€Å"Lamb to the Slaughter† tells us of one obvious betrayal: Patrick Maloney’s decision to leave his pregnant wife. This violation of the marriage-vows is obviously not the only betrayal in the story. If you look deeper you see that Mary’s killing of her husband is definitely the ultimate betrayal. Her strategically planned alibi and convincing lies all add up and go under the category of betrayal. Mary and Patrick Maloney are equally guilty of betrayal, as Patrick emotionally kills his wife, while Mary physically kills her husband. Both parties have hearts full of years’ worth of emotions, and both hearts have been stealthily and quietly killed. SYMBOLISM: THEME – IDENTITY The fingerprint is an impression on the surface of a person’s fingertip and is used for identifying individuals from the unique pattern of spirals and lines. Detectives, much like the ones in the chosen short story, use these prints to identify those that have taken part in a crime scene. It’s made clear through Dahl’s description of the Maloney house that Mary has committedly taken on the model of the perfect middle class wife. Ms. Maloney is a young mid-twentieth-century housewife, keeping a tidy home and catering to her husband. The text states that she’s found pouring drinks when Mr. Maloney finishes his day at work and caters to his every need; which is what makes her sudden murderous action the incident to shatter her once perfect image. When dusting and scanning a fingerprint one owner is usually found, but when scanning Mary’s fingerprint multiple women appear; the on-task housewife, the loving and caring spouse and soon-to- be mother and finally the murderer. In the end, Mary Maloney will always have one print, but many identities. SYMBOLISM: CHARACTER – MARY MALONEY A white lamb is a young sheep, and is portrayed as gentle, meek and innocent, but is also seen as a weakling and as prey. The lamb is usually cheated or outsmarted. The white concept represents its purity. Mary Maloney is definitely a â€Å"lamb† in her innocence and devotion to her husband. When you act out of anger, more than a lamb is slaughtered. It actually quite ironic that this â€Å"lamb† is capable of committing the most clean and cunning murder known of. She’s able to commit murder, get rid of the murder weapon, create herself an alibi as well as outsmart the policemen and is still is able to come out with a clean slate. After doing something so horrible and finding the nerve to scheme her way out of it, â€Å"[†¦] Mary [†¦] began to giggle.† Her dark giggles at the end of the story, show a different character than the one who started. Murder has changed her from a lamb into a lion. SYMBOLYSM: CHARACTER – PATRICK MALONEY A mirror is generally defined as a reflective glass coated surface that reflects a clear image, but more importantly when looked into, you see yourself. Patrick is a very self-centered person, which is why I chose a mirror, as mirrors are associated with selfish people. When informing Mary that he was planning to leave her he gave her all the details and made sure to add, â€Å"[†¦] it wouldn’t be very good for my job.† It’s made obvious that Patrick didn’t think of his wife’s feelings at all, but made sure that everything was done so that it was in his favour. Throughout any situation, in the end Patrick is focused back on himself. Not only does he not consider the feelings of his wife, but he also isn’t thinking of his son. Of course he tells Mary that she can keep the baby, but does he think of what life would be for him without his Father? QUOTE ANALYSIS: CHARACTER – PATRICK MALONEY This character is stereotyped as an unhappy husband who is not pleased with his current marriage. He comes home tired and stressed, but his frustration seems to be coming from his home life rather than his work life. He’d made up his made and got up the nerve to say what he has to say, â€Å"This is going to be a bit of a shock to you [†¦] I hope you won’t blame me too much.† This quote illustrates the author’s outlook on life, which is that people aren’t always what they seem. Patrick used to be well-liked, respected and the perfect husband; but after divorcing his wife he was probably seen as a dog, cheater and fraud. Just as his wife, his identity has changed because of a major complication in his life. QUOTE ANALYSIS: THEME – IDENTITY The author does an excellent job of clearly describing the setting in the first few lines of the story, in order to set the scene for the reader. The setting is seen when Roald Dahl introduces the Maloney home to his new readers, saying, â€Å"The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight – hers and the one by the empty chair opposite. On the sideboard behind her, two tall glasses, soda water, whiskey, Fresh ice cubes in the Thermos bucket.† This quote suggests the Mary is the model housewife; perfect in all she does. Surprisingly, when Mary finds out that her husband is leaving her she, â€Å"[†¦] simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen lamb high in the air and brought it down on his head as hard as she could [†¦] [killing] him.† This demonstrates how Mary’s identity changes from a sweet innocent wife into a killer after just hearing bad news from her husband. FORSHADOWING An example of foreshadowing occurs when Patrick takes his drink after getting home from work. Dahl includes in this famous short story that, â€Å"[†¦] as [Patrick] spoke, he did an unusual thing. He lifted his glass and drained it in one swallow although there was still half of it[†¦] He got up and went slowly over to fetch himself another[†¦] When he comes back, [his]new drink was dark amber with the quantity of whiskey in it.† This quote suggests that Patrick doesn’t usually act like this. It’s quite obvious that he is very uneasy, and is most likely drinking and delaying in order to build the courage to say or do something he might regret. Patrick does this just before breaking the news to his soon-to-be ex-wife. His actions foreshadow the unfortunate things that are to come.

Inventory Management Essay

Companies often suffer because they are unable to meet demands due to a shortage of inventory or from large, expensive inventory maintenance costs. Problems occur due to uncertainties and lack of coordination between the company and its suppliers, partners and customers. Demand can be influenced by prices, competition, weather, fashion trend, technological developments which leads to uncertainties in forecasting demand. Uncertainties also exist in delivery times, quality of raw materials and parts. Factory floor is not just involved in the production and manufacturing of goods but in activities that see to the flow of raw material from the raw material factories through factories and warehouses to the production floor, purchasing, material handling, production planning and controlling, logistics, inventory control and quality assurance. Right level of inventory has to be maintained that is promptly delivered. Internet access will enable the factory floor to have access to useful and relevant information. The employees will have access to operational data that will be concise and relevant. The data will be shared across the organization. New and additional information will be readily available which will give them the insight to the external environment including information about the competitors. One of the most significant changes would be that there will be faster accessibility to all the required information. Availability of correct information will help managers to predict, speculate, forecast and estimate demands and trends. Based on these speculations planning for production is done. According to the planning, ordering, purchasing and using of resources like raw material, capital and labor is chalked out. This will cut down on most of the uncertainties faced by companies. The main problem for any company is determining inventory levels which must be done accurately for each and every product and part. Too high inventory levels raises costs and low levels may lose customers as there might be lead times. E. g. Littlewoods Stores in Britain was able to eliminate $17 million of overstocked inventory by using Web. Better inventory management led to the reduction of the need to liquidate stock which saved the company $1. 4 million (www. microstrategy. com, 2000) Real time collaboration and enhanced communications would help all employees within the organization to coordinate matters more easily. Better collaboration can save the industry $40 billion annually (cited in Konicki, 2002). Customer complaints will be delivered to the production floor on time and immediate steps will be taken. This will help the factory floor to raise the quality of goods, reduce scrap wastage and errors. A proactive approach rather than a reactive approach can be taken. Goods can move on time from suppliers to the production floor to the customers. Better communication would also mean that coordination with suppliers will be improved greatly. Production scheduling can be done more efficiently. Communication can be done via electronic mails, transfer of files, a call for a meeting, commenting on a news group, conferencing etc. During peak demands if the factory floor is unable to meet rising demand it will be able to judge which products it should outsource. Better buy or make decisions can be made. Better communication with suppliers will enable the company to use a just-in-time (JIT) approach by strengthening its ties with a few suppliers who will make prompt delivery of raw materials. The factory floor can also keep a system that will automatically warn the production unit if the inventory falls to a certain level. Automatic placement of order with the suppliers can be made which will reduce the lead time. Intermediaries will be reduced which will help the factory floor to cut down on the costs. Manufacturing can start once the order is placed by the customer like in the case of Dell. Training costs can be cut down on. E. g. a new machine has come in an ice-cream factory which can simultaneously produce 5 different varieties. Employees can be given instructions and a demonstration can be shown online Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) promises benefits from increased efficiency to improved quality, productivity and profitability (cited in Umble and Umble, 2002). This integrates all departments and fuctions in an organization into a single system and hence caters to the organization need. It enhances competitiveness by integrating information on finance and accounting, human resource, operations supply chain, and customer information (Turban, Aronson, Liang, 2006 p. 72) An enterprise portal can be used to integrate the internal applications such as the database containing information on the number of raw materials available for the production of bikes with external applications such as supplier websites etc. Information in this manner can be distributed efficiently and effectively. It will help form a link between the production floor, suppliers, customers, retailers and partners. This is particularly useful if the company is involved in cross selling and is operating in more than one city or country. Diageo plc, a beer and alcohol manufacturer was able to save $1. 1 million in inventory reduction and $600,000 in logistics through accurate forecasting of sales Hence inventory management is extremely important as it can bring breakthrough results within an organization. It gives a competitive edge to the companies as it slashes the costs down by providing a tighter control on inventory stocks. In this fast moving, fiercely competitive world internet has become a necessity and organizations must get technologically advanced to survive and compete.

Analysis of Theoretical Framework

Analysis of Theoretical Framework EDUC 701: Theories and Research in Educational Psychology February 24, 2013 ? Introduction Teachers are required to teach reading and comprehension skills to students and help them be able to read and comprehend materials from the past and present. Dr. Constance L. Pearson (1990) writes a dissertation entitled â€Å"The Comparison of the Effects of Three Prereading Advance Organizers on the Literal Comprehension of Fifth-Grade Social Studies Materials† in this paper he is trying to see if the use of a prereading advanced organizer would help build the fifth grade students comprehension and knowledge skills.During this stage of students learning development it is very important to start working on their reading and comprehension skills. Analysis The theoretical framework for this dissertation is using fifth-grade social studies materials and having a prereading strategy of an advanced organizer to see if it would increase comprehension and know ledge in the children while they read their textbooks. The advanced organizers that are being used are visual, graphic and problematic situation approach. The advanced organizers are being used to help the students with any concepts that they are not familiar with.By using these organizers strategies would be developed to help assist in learning the material. There were two research questions to validate the theory that is being used. The first question related to reading comprehension and how it affects students when they are given a prereading activity while using one of the advanced organizers. The second research question relates to the reading comprehension of the other two advanced organizer approaches when they are given a preading activity. It is believed that students reading comprehension can be increased from the use of the advanced organizers for their particular subject area.The purpose of this research was to determine if one of the prereading advance organizer strateg ies would carry distinction from the other two approaches. During the research many factors had to be considered and one such factor were students not being able to derive meaning from what they read in content area textbooks. One reason that the reader may have a problem with content text is that the material is written on a higher reading level then the intended reader. As a result the writers have tried to simplify the terminology and shortened the sentences.They did not take into consideration factors that inherent in the reader such motivation, reading ability and interest. There is one human factor that has the most influence on comprehension and that is schemata. Comprehension of the material is being determined by the knowledge that the reader brings to the selection. The more schemata the reader has for the topic the more they will understand the topic. Content materials especially in the area of social studies seek to develop many concepts; students often do not have the f ramework to attach new knowledge.Students must have an understanding of the concepts in order to comprehend the material they are reading. In chapter two of the dissertation Pearson explains how the research and literature that relate to the relationship of advance organizers to reading comprehension. He discusses the history of the study of reading comprehension and advance organizers. The schema theory is discussed as it relates to the study of advance organizers. Before 1970 reading comprehension was viewed as a process solely activated by the text itself.The views on reading comprehension have since changed and now text has been determined to be only the framework for meaning. The reader must be able to construct an internal conceptual representation of what is being read. Conclusion Therefore, through research it was determined the usage of advance organizers before the materials were read, did bring about some remembering by activating important concepts that were already pres ent in the children’s cognitive structure. The usage of advanced organizers should reinforce the importance of the new materials by providing the framework of previous learning materials.To determine if the usage of advanced organizers remain effective you should upon its ability to support new ideas from the student’s previous ideas. The prereading strategy of advanced organizers introduces how students can attach concepts to new learning materials Reference Pearson, C. L. P. (1990). The comparison of the effects of three prereading advance organizers on the literal comprehension of fifth-grade social studies materials. (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.

Capital punishment and why does the Church (Christianity) oppose it so much Essay Example for Free

Capital punishment and why does the Church (Christianity) oppose it so much Essay Christian (302) , Punishment (104) , Capital punishment (54) company About StudyMoose Contact Careers Help Center Donate a Paper Legal Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Complaints Man is a sacred and precious creature created by God.   When God has created the Universe, light, the birds, animals, the trees, water and the earth, he had given a lot of importance to man.   Evidence from the Bible suggests that God had left creating man as his final task, and after he had created man, God was so amazed, satisfied with himself and fulfilled with his own creation, that he decided to rest (on the Seventh day).   Through his creation of man, he had provided a reflection of himself ( The Old Testament: Genesis 1 ).   In deed God has given a lot of importance to man, and no one has the right to take away or destroy the life this very special and beautiful creation of God.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Countries throughout the World are beginning to understand the importance of capital punishment and are slowly outlawing such laws.   However, certain developed countries such as the US are still encouraging Capital punishment.   The US had stopped capital punishment for some period of time (from 1972 to 1977).   However, the practice resumed again following Gregg V. Georgia case ( Horigan, 2004 ).   Most of the states in the US permit Capital punishment only in very specific instances.   However, the very existence of such an option in the judiciary system, does suggest the States Support to this inhuman act.   The rate of execution in the US has dropped since the 1930’s, but this has no fully ended. The largest number of executions is performed by the State of Texas, and the highest percentage of the population executed by the State is Virginia (Robinson, 2006).   The response of the US public to capital punishment is somewhat mixed.   However, the reaction of the Canadian people to capital punishment was also similar, but the Country has abolished capital punishment.   Depending on the seriousness of their crime, the crimes are imprisoned even for indefinite periods ( Robinson, 2006 ).   Canada has also shown that imposition of capital punishment does not necessarily result in a drop in the crime rates.   The Japanese on the other which permit capital punishment have a crime rate much below that of the US. Hence, it can be demonstrated that capital punishment may not play an important role in crime ( Robinson, 2006 ).   In the US, many people who have been executed by the law, were found not even to be given a proper lawyer during their trials. Several states in the US that have capital punishment in their legal systems seem to have a higher criminal rate than those which do not have capital punishment ( Robinson, 2006 ).   People may feel that by incorporating capital punishment in their legal systems, the State is cheapening the value of human life.   Hence, the crime rates in such states are on the rise.   Several other factors such as poor socio-economic status, low educational levels, poor living conditions, etc, may be related with an increase in the crime rates.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Church has seriously opposed the use of capital punishment in case of serious crime.   Pope John Paul II has opposed the imposition of death penalty by the State ( Dulles, 2001 ).   Christians give a lot of importance to life and have opposed any action that could result in the ‘violation to the right to life’ such as murder, abortion, suicide, euthanasia, etc.   Christians usually feel that as God has controlled life, no one including the Governments and the Courts can take away a human life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Old Testament, death was specifically suggested to those who had sinned or committed offences (such as murder and adultery).   The Sacred Covenant during Noah had mentioned that anyone who offenders and disobeys God be stoned or hanged to death.   Several episodes in the Old Testament such as those of with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram ( Numbers 16 ), have given instances in which capital punishment was performed to penalize sinners.   People who helped to execute the will of God by ending the life of the offenders were considered as Agents of God.   Many Countries of the World still follow the Old Testament of capital punishment in penalizing serious crimes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, things have changed since the New Testament times.   Although Jesus Christ had not spoken much about the use of capital punishment by the state, indirect instances are present in the New Testament which may suggest that Jesus was against the practice of capital punishment.   One of these instances included the Stoning of a woman who had sinned.   Jesus did not allow his disciples to pronounce curses of destruction of death on people who did not have feelings of love towards others. In John 19:11 , Jesus told Pilate that he had the authority to sentence anybody who had sinned against God, and that Pilate had the right to fulfill God’s intentions.   In Matthew 26:52, Jesus told Peter to put back his sword when he was arrested.   Jesus even put back the soldier’s piece of ear, after Peter had cut it with his sword.   In Luke 23: 41 , Jesus tells the thief crucified on his side, that they were receiving punishment for the sins that they had committed on earth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Christianity believed in the concept of ‘love thy neighbor as thy self’, and Jesus in his preaching expressed that this feeling should be extended to every aspect of life.   We could potentially extent its application for use to prevent capital punishment.   In the New Testament after Christ, there may be several instances in which capital punishment was encouraged.   However, these instances may not directly support capital punishment.   In Acts 5: 1-11 , capital sentences were imposed because they disobeyed Simon Peter.   The Letter to the Hebrews also encouraged the Mosaic Laws on capital punishment. St. Paul told the Romans that death sentence was a mean of expressing God’s intentions against sinners.   However, there have also been instances in the New Testament in which the Church and Christians have opposed death sentence.   During the early Christianity period, the Church did not approve Christians to function as executioners of death sentences ( Dulles, 2001 ).   St. Augustine felt that the Fifth Commandant should be utilized even to prevent execution of death sentences and killing of criminals.   He wrote an entire book about Capital punishment named The City of God .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The idea of capital punishment changed a bit during the Middle Age.   Christianity had some influence on the people, and the Courts were told to impose capital punishment only for people who committed serious crime.   This was mainly as a self-defense mechanism to prevent the criminals from committing further crime and to ensure that the society was safe.   Some of the theologists felt that capital punishment was more of a hatred act against the criminal than one to enable him to reform in the future ( Dulles, 2001 ).   Even though the Church opposed death sentence, it constituted a body to pronounce and capital punishment. The Church even conferred the State the power to issue death sentences in the later part of the 16 th century.   It derived this power from the Commandant â€Å"thou shall not murder†, and it was performed in several instances.   Slowly the Church began to approve capital punishment only in the case the criminal committed a serious crime.   Slowly the attitude of the Church towards capital punishment began to change as they felt that life was a precious gift given by God and it was morally wrong to take one’s life for sins committed.   The Italian thinker Gino Concetti , wrote a Book L’Osservatore Romano in 1977, demonstrating the importance and sacredness of God-given life.   He said that humans could not destroy the life of another human, and even the criminals who had performed serious crimes should not be punished with death sentence.    He said that there should not be any circumstance in which capital punishment was justified as no person had the right to take the life of another and destroy one of God’s precious creations.   We should be able to respect the view that God is expressing himself in man.   This work had really changed the attitudes of Christians and the Church towards capital punishment. Many people felt that the Church itself did not respect or identify this view of life before.   There was a uproar against capital punishment in the 20 th century in Europe.   Several European countries who believed in Christianity began to incorporate the latest teachings and beliefs of the Church in their Legal systems.   The Governments began to underhand the importance of life ( Dulles, 2001 ). Since, the criminal is also a human being; he is a precious creation of God and has a reflection of God in himself.   His actions have an element of God expressed in it.   Hence, it would be morally wrong to even punish the most serious criminals with capital punishment.   In the Old Testament, the view that a criminal action should be punished with a similar action by the law-enforcement agency existed.   However, a person may be expressing the Will of God through his actions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Christianity has developed over a long period, and now it does not permit both, direct destruction (taking the life of a specific person) and indirect destruction (actions performed without the intention of killing another person).   In some instances, taking the life of another person by mistake may be pardoned by the Church.   The Church is also against any individuals taking the life of another on the advice of the State ( Pesenke, 1981 ). God does not allow one human to take the life of another because God is the creator of the human beings and can create or destroy a life.   Any person who takes the life of another with a mental intention is sinning against God.   A Human life is the most precious work of God, and destroying it would be against the Will of God.   No political or legal body in the World has the right to interfere with God’s creation.   It is not justified for any Court or King to take the life of any individual including a criminal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many countries feel that capital punishment should be permitted at least to end the life of criminals who committed serious crimes.   They may also be considering that it would be a cheaper option to end the life of such criminals than to punish them with life-imprisonment.   However, the legal and the political systems should not cheapen human life, and should consider them as important to God.   Having capital punishment options in the legal system is not going to reduce crimes.   It is essential that the Government provides a socio-economic environment that may permit development and reduce frustration of the people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Jews believed firmly in capital punishment and permitted it following murders, adultery, worship of idols, war crimes, and kidnapping.   They feel that capital punishment would ensure that the society is safer from the actions of the criminals in the future.   They also feel that anybody who destroys God-given creations should be punished with death sentence.   A counsel usually issues death sentences in Jewish courts.   The court will examine the criminal during the trial and 2 neutral witnesses should provide evidence for the case.   As the process of issuing capital punishment under Jewish laws is very stringent, such sentences may usually occur less frequently. In several situations (such as wars, emergencies, dealing with non-Jewish criminals, etc), the stringent process is relaxed and death sentences are issued more easily.   In such situations Noah-Laws are usually applicable.   Usually just one neutral witness is required ( FAQ, 2006 ).   During the later part of the 20 th century, Jewish thinkers began to oppose the use of capital punishment by the legal system.   The ideas of Christian theologists are now being followed by the Jewish thinkers with regard to death sentence.   Only in extremely serious crimes are capital punishment allowed by Jewish courts ( FAQ, 2006 ).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Capital punishment is not only an ineffective way of dealing with crime (as it does not reduce the crime rate), but is also an immature way (as hatred and revenge are spread).   It also cheapens the importance of God-given life.   The Government should look at alternative to punish or reform the criminals. Dulles, A. C. (2001). â€Å"Catholicism & Capital Punishment.† First Things 112, 30-35. http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2175%20 FAQ (2006). Question 12.21: What is the Jewish position on Capital Punishment? Retrieved on April 8, 2007, from FAQ.org   Web site: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance from Web site: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/06-Jewish-Thought/section-22.html Horigan, D. P. (1996). Buddhism & Capital Punishment . Retrieved on April 8, 2007, from The Engaged Zen Foundation from Web site: http://www.engaged-zen.org/articles/Damien_P_Horigan-Buddhism_Capital_Punishment.html Pesenke, H. C. (1981). Christian Ethics: Volume II – Special Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II , Bangalore: TPI. Robinson, B. A. (2006). Facts about capital punishment: Part 1: data & trends . Retrieved on April 8, 2007, from Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance from Web site: http://www.religioustolerance.org/execut3.htm The Bible Gateway (2007). Genesis 1 (New International Version). Retrieved on April 8, 2007, from The Bible Gateway from Web site: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+1 Capital punishment and why does the Church (Christianity) oppose it so much. (2017, Apr 24). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you