When is it okay to kill someone?

[Rickky]

Oh f*** me. I'm not motivated enough to read through all the replies here, which as well is the dummest thing by being new to a board; rather clueless posting, or a lot of lurking and reading. Anyway, my only statement to this topic right now must be very similar to answers above me, but well it's never okay to kill anyone, whether the person deserves it wouldn't make it okay either. However if you must kill someone, in self defence or what not, you kill them; and you will probably live with some kind of regret or a simple bad feeling, because you literally took a life. So yeah, it'll never be okay what so ever. But sometimes it may actually be needed.

 

I feel bad just killing a little bug. I hardly ever kill bugs, I always find some way to toss them out to the nature where they belong. I've learned from just being too paranoid about karma that they are actually quite lovely creatures, and has a life stream just like us.

 

Anyway, summary; killing's not okay. Whatever the matter!

[Aonghus]

I've been reading this thread for a while and have (so far) resisted the urge to weigh in. Partially because I wasn't sure that I could add anything to the discussion and partially because I wasn't really sure where I would draw the line beyond the obvious case of self-defense. Have had some time to think it over, though, I think I may have an answer.

 

"When is it okay to kill someone?" -- Whenever doing so prevents injustice.

 

I base this quick statement on a study of the doctrine of the "Just War:"

 

Just Cause - Killing, as with a war, must be undertaken only to protect innocents from imminent danger.

Competent Authority - Lawful instructions from proper authorities must be followed. In the set of questions above, the order to kill a terrorist is lawful, the order to take out his entire family (unless they are also terrorists) is not.

Right Intention - Killing must be undertaken only for a just cause (protecting innocents from harm, see above.) Personal gain, either material or emotional (i.e. revenge) is not.

Probability of Success - My act of killing another must have a reasonable chance of preventing the innocent party from coming to harm, or for stopping the harm that has been done to them.

Last Resort - There must be no other viable options available, or no time to consider other options.

Proportionality - The harm that I am seeking to prevent must be sufficiently grave to justify killing. (IMHO, loss of life, serious trauma, and harms of that ilk qualify.)

 

Two exchanges from entertainment come to mind as well.

 

The first is dialogue from FO3, when the Lone Wanderer is trying to convince Nathan that unquestioning support of the government is wrong, one of the dialogue options is "Well, why else would they have given us guns and told us, "If we're messing up, feel free to take us out.""

 

The second is from the TV series Firefly:

Zoe: "Shepherd, don't the Good Book have some pretty specific things to say about killing?"

Book: "Why yes." (He cocks a shotgun.) "It is however, hazier on the subject of kneecaps."

 

My final thought is a quote from Machiavelli, "Never do an enemy a small injury." :devil:

[marharth]

This has been on the youtube front page for a while, I thought I would post it now. The professor explains my point.

 

Its better to save five people by killing one.

 

 

I can't believe some people can be so incredibly foolish to not realize killing someone in power, can save millions of lives.

Edited September 27, 2011 by marharth