State-sponsored death corrupts the moral life of a modern nation.

Evidence

When the government touches a corpse, it contaminates the private citizen. A modern nation that deals in state-sponsored death, becomes, in part, dead in itself; dead certainly, to the enlightened ideals from which America derives its existence as a nation. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 662

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 662
• XREF: connects to: Mass death from atrocity differs morally from ordinary, unavoidable death — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 406; Dehumanising language and policy causes a ripple effect feeding through acts of violence and torture by state actors — ‘They deserve it for what they’re doing’: dehumanising rhetoric as a …; Even higher wartime death rates of Indos were blamed on their weaker moral fibre (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Refusing equal value of lives yields state terrorism and philosopher-executioners #corroborates (0.70)
• Mass death from atrocity differs morally from ordinary, unavoidable death #complicates (0.60) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 406
• Proportionality’s incalculability serves to legitimize the deaths it governs #expands (0.60)