Contaminated Chinese Milk Turns Deadly...For Company Execs
Two men responsible for the melamine contamination scandal in China, Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping, were given the death penalty by the Chinese government today and the company's chairwoman, Tian Wenhua, was given life in prison for being responsible for the melamine-contaminated milk responsible for killing six children and hundreds of thousands of illnesses, says the International Herald Tribune.
The company involved, Sanlu, was connected to all of the documented deaths--and furthermore, company executives admitted to knowing that melamine was in milk products and infant formula for as many as six months before informing the Chinese government.
Both men sentenced to death were convicted for "producing and selling" a product that was directly responsible for the deaths of innocent persons. Now, it would appear, that these individuals will pay with their own lives for sacrificing the health and safety of hundreds of thousand of others. By our own standards it would seem a rather high price to pay, but by any utilitarian calculation, it would seem rather straight forward.
Ironically, though, the damage is already done, the crisis under control, and there would appear no risk of future harm. So what is gained by the men's execution? Punishment alone would seem to be the only real goal here. Or catharsis perhaps for six children dead and hundreds of thousands sickened. It is not as though their death contains some contagion or public health crisis that they could continue to spread. If the Chinese government truly feared recidivism, they could give these men life in prison as they did to Ms. Tian.
The death penalty for these men is too severe a punishment, even if they did sicken hundreds of thousands, from distributing a known toxin. They should have to spend their lives in a Chinese prison, thinking about the lives they hurt, their greed and corruption. I do not see what the Chinese government has gained by sentencing these two men to the death penalty and then by leaving Ms. Tian in prison for life.
Summer Johnson, PhD
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