It has been suggested that certain programming language constructs, in particular the GO TO, lend themselves to obscure coding practices. Some language designers have even gone so far as to design languages which purposely omit such familiar constructs as GO TO in an attempt to constrain the programmer to refrain from particular styles of programming thought by the language designer to be "bad" in some sense. But any language with function calls, functional values, conditionals, correct handling of tail-recursions, and lexical scoping can simulate such "non-structured" constructs as GO TO statements, call-by-name, and fluid variables in a straightforward manner. If the language also has a macro processor or preprocessor, these simulations will even be convenient to use.
No amount of language design can force a programmer to write clear programs. If the programmer's conception of the problem is badly organized, then his program will also be badly organized. The extent to which a programming language can help a programmer to organize his problem is precisely the extent to which it provides features appropriate to his problem domain. The emphasis should not be on eliminating "bad" language constructs, but on discovering or inventing helpful ones.
Guy L. Steele Jr. and Gerald J. Sussman
Lambda - The Ultimate Imperative