We gave the Japanese amnesty for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 in exchange for their biological warfare data. We had the option to do the right thing (burn it, put it on display), but we validated it.
> We had the option to do the right thing (burn it, put it on display), but we validated it. I'm not sure complete amnesty was the best thing to do, but I don't think destroying the data would be the best either. If we had burned the data that was already gathered, it would have been a complete waste of human life. Those people experimented on were murdered, and burning the data would have made those murders pointles…
Those same perverse incentives also power the perpetrators. We absolutely need to destroy all ill gotten gains without question. All deaths are pointless, even our own when lived out naturally. But deaths that power a vile knowledge, that knowledge cannot, must not live. Because when you allow it, even for an instant, you make it ok. And it will happen again, and the perpetrator will feel like they are doing good. And the receiver will feel like they are respecting the life given, but in fact it is a perfectly crafted crime. The gains must destroyed, every time, without question.