Could You Kill? An Ethical and Personal Question.

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 3:46 pm

Could You Kill? An Ethical and Personal Question.

Philosophical & Personal Debate Options Roughly Hewn

Personal Preservation

To save your own life or the life of your family – family measurable in that specific degree that they have a very personal influence on you and in your life. Yes, there would be no issue.

Assassination

I believe it is ethical to kill those who oppress, exploit, and cause suffering to others. Politicians, leaders of the World Trade Court, and some high ranking members of corporations deserve this kind of punishment. It is in the best interest of the common people to inform themselves of the issues in the world today and act upon those issues in an extreme manner to protect themselves and others. I highly recommend researching corporations such as Monsanto for a start.

Taking one persons life to

Taking one person life to save 100 others is logical, but emotions might keep us from otherwise making this decision. The further we can keep emotion from these decisions the better. Say the person you were going to kill was some random guy you don't know, and all you would have to do is press a button to kill him/her. This would be a whole lot easier if this person was, say your brother, mother, son, etc, and you would have to strangle them. The second situation involves a huge amount of emotion with most people that would otherwise keep them from making the logical choice.
I'm not saying emotions are bad, they just have their downsides. If it wasn't for emotions we'd be cold hard machines. Emotions are human (animals too) characteristics, and like all human characteristics, they have equal ups and equal downs.
But would it be ethical? Well keeping 100 mothers from crying is more ethical than keeping just 1 mother from crying. Not saving these lives because (in simple terms) "you don't have the balls" to make the necessary decision is selfish. You do not want to get your hands dirty, you do not want to have to go through this, so you are going to let 100 people die.

It is both yes and no..

For me, it is both YES and No, It is ethical in a way that you save one’s life whether you kill someone or not. It is better to kill someone who cause suffering to others than to see someone who suffers from those kind of person. And I do believe that if somebody died or if somebody was killed, it is their fate that brings them to it; it is the end of their life line. And even though they already gone, only the body was died, but their soul reaches its perfection (it is according to the Philosophy of man of Socrates).
But, it is also not ethical in a way that “we don’t have any license to take somebody’s life.” Only God owned those rights to take one person’s life in order to save others who deserve to live more. No one has the right to kill others, and besides there’s another way to save lives.

Feel that if you choose to

I feel that if you choose to kill one to save many that your committing a crime but the amount of necessity can change the morality of the situation giving the killer of one the obligation to do so.

It is something that I need, would like to, or just plain feel like doing

Self-explanatory I hope...

I wanted to post this topic because of one thing and one thing only. M.A.S.H. - yeh, the damn show. Never watched it ever, except for one episode where one of the doctors and dozens of civilians are hiding from the Koreans on a bus. The Doctor whispers very strongly to a Lady with a crying Baby - "Lady! Smother that baby or we're all dead!"

Harsh eh?

Posts merged, dont double post, use the edit function - Mod

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 4:21 pm

Ive heard this question before and in all honesty I think its not something that can be answered unless it happens.
I suppose anybody could be pushed to kill in an extreme situation but you will never know. But I would rather put somebody in the ground before I see my familly harmed. Wether it would happen like that is anyboddies guess.

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 4:52 pm

Anyone is capable of murder but not everyone can cope with what they have done and get bad flashbacks..When it comes to defending family that could be the breaking point for some people your emotions would be running high full of anger yep I could kill defending family....I don't know how I would feel afterwards because I would need to be that situation ...

Allot of people come back from wars full of flashbacks and don't think that life is worth living.. I know a man that was in the R.A.F. and was in a allot of action and saw lots of it the guy is in and out of the nut house.. This guy is looked up to as a war hero but to him he does not give a shit about things like that he would just like his life back...

Then you get crack heads that go out killing people for fun because they get kicks out of it don't get me wrong some people are like that in the army...Some people say they murder because they say they read it in the bible or some sort of god told them and that's another sort of nutter you can get... Then you have the other ones that kill their family then themselves all sick in the head..

Some people would kill for money/power and don't give shit what happens some for drugs to feed a habit or what ever ..They could be jealous or anything all these motives of murder...

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 5:29 pm

If I ever find these ppl I will kill them in a heartbeat

Who ever said "wow mp4 is a good file format"

The idiot who invented "AAA" batteries

Gordon Ramsey

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 5:54 pm

I think a better title for this would be “Would you kill:” - we are all capable of this, depending on one’s emotional state, and the threat we percieve

mahatma gandhi - "There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."

EDIT: Gordon Ramsey will perish only if you cease to pay attention to him

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 6:04 pm

I could kill someone for a rib-eye steak, well done dripping in garlic butter right now mmmmm... prepared by Gordon Ramsey Laughing

Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 6:06 pm

I just do it cause its fun

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 1:08 am

If someone was prepared to harm my wife, kids or grandkids I wouldn't hesitate for 1 heartbeat I would kill.

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 1:16 am

Kill maybe, bomb them from the sky? sure.

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 7:35 am

cbilljones wrote:

I just do it cause its fun

What exactly do you consider fun about it? I just watched the movie Unthinkable. You might like it. It was the best I have seen in a long time for suspense.

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 10:21 am

I believe that I would kill someone, someone who poses a threat to me or the people I care for. I've come close on two occasions, and so far, the threat of violence had stopped those people from doing further harm. Several years ago, someone I know was being choked by his landlord. My friend was turning blue, and I grabbed a rifle and pointed it at the man's head and shouted at him to let go. He did, and walked out of the house. Looking back at the situation, I am certain that if my threat/warning didn't work, I would have pulled the trigger, and painted the wall with his brain matter.

The second case was when some crackhead tried stealing my car. I pumped the action on a Mossberg 500, at which point they heard the sound and took off running. As for if I would have shot them? Not sure on that one.

As far as being willing to kill someone, I believe that anyone can be "pushed" to that. The important part is, can they live with their decision to kill or not kill? Killing another human being has been described as a life-changing experience, by many.

Here if Florida, we have what they call the stand your ground law, aka the Castle Doctrine. Florida Castle Doctrine (It's not just about guns, BTW) It protects those who protect themselves, with up to and including deadly force, from civil or criminal prosecution. It does have limitations, of course. But the point is, where I live, the law allows a common civilian to meet force with force, so, that takes the legality fears out, and leaves the choice to kill or not, in the person's conscience.

I guess this wraps up my opinion on the "Personal Preservation" aspect of killing, I'll leave it to y'all to take on the other sides of killing.

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 4:46 pm

Could I? Probably. I have a dark side.
Would I? Hell no. I'd rather be dead than have that weight on my conscience.

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 5:52 pm

I have very little doubt that if it came down to it, I could kill without hesitation in order to save my own life. I am definitely capable of that.

Saving other people's life is not that far removed. When you've painted that bad guys that plainly as targets, and provided I have the means, I don't think I'm going to have too many qualms about putting them down.

Most of the time it's hard to know, how you'll react when you are in these impossible situations. But in this instance I just know. I've stated this before somewhere.

As for all the other situations, those really are the ones where it's hard to know how you are going to react. I for one actually agree with the assassination of bad guys. All those self serving politicians for one. And the bureaucrats next.

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 1:32 am

if you don´t have any choice..yes i would kill another man if he tries take my life..

Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 2:01 am

the taking of a life is one thiing and its ethics whatever are hypothetical.
When given a choice to remove one doing harm to many logic and our sense of humanity would lead us to conclude that it is justified..
Turning the coin for a moment how many that do bad do so cause they are bad or is it that they themselves need help or may be in a situation that needs addressing. Kill a snake by removing the head is one thing. removing by assassination replaces the head with another sometimes better but often as bad or worse.

The real issue for myself is No I will not kill.
However circumstance and emotion can and do change everything.
Harm my child and your dead.

We should be asking is killing justifiable. On many occasions yes.
Should we premeditate? I would say no as it then becomes murder.
I would not plan to attack someone for harming my family, it would be plain and simple go get the person or persons responsible and not so that they could not harm another but purely because they overstepped the line and hurt me and mine.