There are a lot of crimes in this world. Ethical problems related to this always exist. A criminal, who has serious criminal offense like clueless murder, rape, larceny, usually gets punished heavily. But a crime raising issues like legal defense, where its borders are unclear, is not easy to have exact ethical judgement. So, here is a drama Dexter related to ethical issues. A drama Dexter is the story about Dexter who is a psychopath and a forensic pathologist, killing only bad murderers. Shocking sets and stories like dealing a crime with murder leave questions to viewers. Then now, let's see main character Dexter’s story and two cases which can be judged by various ethical interpretations.
Dexter is standing in the core of drama. Who is he? Dexter is a forensic pathologist and a blood master working with the police. At the scene, he can even notice how a perpetrator killed a victim with which weapon they used by looking at the shape and flow of blood mark. In the day time, this skill can be helpful to catch a perpetrator. In the night time, it is used for his secret life. When the night comes, Dexter finds and kidnaps criminals. And before he kills criminals, he collects their blood to collect records.
Some people think Dexter is an intelligent person, but he releases his murder instinct by himself inside. Since he hides his real image, he is good at murder skill and hiding trace on his own. He had learned this from Harry. When Dexter was young, he gets caught killing a puppy called Buddy by Harry. After that, Dexter’s murder impulse gets worse as he grows up. Harry tried to suppress his murder impulse but fails eventually. Then, Harry suggest Dexter to use murder impulse in an effective way. Harry begins to teach Dexter how to think about criminals and to erase traces after killing them.
Thereafter, Dexter could become a skilled monster. Surely, there is a reason for his murder impulse. In fact, when he was young, he had to see his mother dying. Because he had to endure the 2 days of life in the sea of blood, he had gotten emotional flaws. The image of a person killing another and the painful time that comes afterward. He experienced all these terrible things alone. That's why he became a psychopath. But when the people finds out the next two cases, how would they react?
The first case is where Dexter killed a person, not an animal for the first time. In Dexter’s childhood, Harry was confined to bed with illness in 'Halfway House' which is a facility for rehabilitation. At that time, Harry gave Dexter a mission. That is to kill the nurse in charge of him in the house. In fact, the nurse was a psychopath and she secretly administered a drug that would kill Harry. So, Dexter accepted this case as legal defense, then killed her. Isn’t Harry guilty of asking a childhood boy to kill a person instead of doing it on his own? Was there any other way to kill the nurse? Did Dexter try to think about his judgement?
The second case is a prostitute serial killer's case. One day, a woman’s body is found in a swimming pool, which is cut into pieces. This serial killer made 3 victims over 5 months. One day, Dexter found same case while he was dating with Rita. It was the fourth victim. Dexter heard from his younger sister, Debra, that she had heard the word "blood clot" from coroner while inspecting the fourth victim’s body. Also, Debra added that the parts of the body were as cold as frozen meat. At this point, Dexter found out how the bodies didn't have a drop of blood. Dexter thought the criminal had used the algorithm that if one cools the body, the blood circulation goes slow. Therefore, he put the body parts in a frozen truck. Dexter prognosticate criminal as a person who’s work is related to frozen truck.
While chasing a criminal, all the clues discovered were related to Dexter’s mother. And he finds out that the criminal is Dexter’s older brother. He made these incidents to inform Dexter of his existence. He even suggests killing Debra together and live a new life together. But finally, the case gets closed as Dexter choose Debra over his brother. Finally, he kills his older brother. What judgment would be right to Dexter’s brother who became a serial killer just to inform his existence? At that time, Dexter was afraid to feel the sense of shame after he killed his own family. Is it justifiable to give tolerance to this murderer who had experienced such mood changes?
While watching drama Dexter, you may find yourself standing in Dexter’s side and cheering him. Or you may bear the thought that it would be nice if someone who only kills bad murderers or criminals exists. Isn’t it embarrassing facing yourself in between the lines of good and evil? Now, we have to think about the real justification. If you must judge Dexter, how would you do that? Do you think retaliatory murder is justifiable? In your opinion, when is it right for the rewarding of virtue and the punishment of evil? If you become a judge and have a gavel on your hand, what ethical interpretations would you get in this situation? Please take your time to think about hitting the gavel with some wise solutions. < Copyright © The Gachon Herald All rights reserved > |