I believe Thomas Edison’s postition on electrocution was very unethical. Capital punishment should occur for one and only reason, that the person being executed was convicted of a crime worth being executed for. People should not be able to benefit in any way from such a terrible thing as capital punishment, especially financially. However, Edison used capital punishment to try and discredit his competitor George Westinghouse and gain further success in the electrical industry. By helping to implement Westinghouse’s alternating current into the electric chair Edison sought to show the great dangers of AC and convince the public to invest in DC because it wouldn’t kill people. In Empires of Light Jill Jonnes gives an example of Edison’s position on the issue “Arrayed on the DC side were, of course, Harold Brown and Thomas Edison, both delighted that a human being was to be officially and specifically electrocuted with the ‘man-killing’ Westinghouse generators.” Although Edison was without a doubt one of the greatest inventors and most brilliant men of our time, his business decisions were sometimes not thought out very well and also unethical.
November 19, 2008 at 2:45 pm |
I am agreeing with this. The actions he took are in this case and some others with business in mind are highly unethical. This is rather unfortunate considering he started out as an inventor looking to create and improve rather than discredit and destroy.
November 19, 2008 at 3:29 pm |
Would Edison’s position on electrocution have been ethical had he executed “someone who committed a crime worth being executed for”? Who decides whether the crime committed warrants the punishment of execution?
Your argument seems to be that Edison’s position is unethical because he uses his position for personal motives with no regards to its consequences and effects on others. When you bring in the sentence about when a crime warrants capital punishment it confused me in regards to your thesis.