A Plea on Behalf of the Innocent
As you and the whole world know, I was found guilty of murder and have been duly sentenced to death. I will not pretend that I am innocent. I cannot but agree with the judge who, in passing sentence, described me as a 'perfect specimen of evil' and 'a monster of unequalled depravity'. It is unquestionable that I deserve to die, if any person does. The plea for clemency that I make is therefore not on my behalf, but on the behalf of innocent beings who do not deserve the fate that will be visited on them. I have a heart, and also a liver, kidneys, a stomach, intestines and other bodily organs and parts which cannot be held responsible for the crimes I have committed. Let us allow that my brain, or portions of it, may count as a guilty party an accessory before the fact, if not the actual instigator of the deed. I fear that the mystery of the relation of mind to brain is not one I can fathom. But even if my brain is responsible, the cells in it are not. They were unwittingly going about their business when I committed my many crimes. On the whole, it must be said that my organs, cells and muscles are innocent of wrongdoing, not to mention the bacteria in my gut and whatever external or internal parasites I might have. It is simply their unhappy fate to be bound to a person such as I. They do not deserve to be destroyed. You will undoubtedly reply that hearts, livers, bacteria, etc. do not have a 'right to life', and do not have to be taken into account when we make our moral decisions. I know that my plea is an unusual one, but I believe that I can convince you, as a fair and reasonable person, that I am right to be concerned for the lives and well being of these entities. First of all, I think you will have to agree that hearts, lungs and livers are individual beings. It is true that they are vitally dependent on their environment for their existence; and that their function is to contribute to the maintenance of that environment. But this does not mean that they don't count as individual beings. For all creatures on this earth, animals and plants, are vitally dependent on their environment, and most can be regarded as contributing to the maintenance of that environment. Plants, trees, antelopes and lions are all organs, so to speak, of an ecological system. Even we human beings are dependent on our environment for our life (though environmentalists tend to regard us as parasites on the face of the earth rather than as contributors to the maintenance of our planet).