Death-penalty advocates subordinate sanctity of life to protecting social order.

Evidence

Echoing Kant’s duty-bound morality, Taylor questions whether respect for the sanctity of life is the ultimate moral value. Protecting the social order, he argues, is a higher common good than simply allowing offenders to continue living in prison without a further purpose. Granting states the right to execute wrongdoers based on judgments of their worthy purpose is a dangerous social policy. … In his pro-life view, “true justice and genuine mercy demand the hangman.” In the promotion of punishment by death, retribution appears to be morphing into vengeance. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1902

Categorization

• XREF: Self-described pro-life advocates demanding execution parallels medieval burnings of heretics ‘for their own souls’ — life-taking justified as mercy. Connects to Bandura’s moral disengagement mechanisms.