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I don't see any reason to believe that the fear of prison should they fail to die has ever, or will ever, deter even a single person from carrying out a suicide mission.

The lack of deterrent effect doesn’t mean that society’s desire for punishment vanishes. If there was a treatment that could make Osama Bin Laden a perfectly normal accountant in Des Moines I would not advocate for it compared to a trial and execution.

C/f this vindictive attitude with how the Norwegians have treated Brivik. He has been gently and humanly turned into a joke when he could have been a martyr...

>...but then there is no deterrent...

The deterrent premise is as old as at least the Inquisition (12th century) and has worked out quite well to reduce crime and recidivism rates in the world to nigh zero levels in the centuries since... /s

You don't have a deterrent to begin with.