No justification for treating others as having no value.

There is no human justification for treating another as having no value. There is no justification for taking the life of another or denying quality of life to another. You may feel that there is justification in denying quality of life based on behavior, but the quality of life we refer to is a quality that recognizes that all human beings share a common existence under the light of God. You can affirm the quality, the value, of someone’s life while denying how they express that quality when such expression is clearly a matter of inhumane treatment of another.

The criminal who kills is restrained because of the actions, and yet that criminal should be treated in a way that affirms that there is some goodness in that individual. You can punish a child, and yet the child can feel there is still love. The punishment is for the behavior. The punishment is not a denial of the quality, the sacredness, the value of that child’s life.