Is killing wrong?

[Tony]

yes

no

depends on the circumstances.

If you choose "depends on the circumstances", under what circumstances would you say it is ok to kill?

[Tony]

OK, how come I cant post a poll?

[Frank Newgent]

"Enhanced features" must be down. I tried attaching a song to a thread I started just a few minutes ahead of yours. You would've hated it I'm sure. So blame me.

[Denise]

I assume we are talking about people? Yes, depends on the circumstances. Self defense is a good reason. I'd like to see some form of euthanasia legalized also.

[peptoabysmal]

In most countries, killing is against the law. This serves a logical purpose to preserve civilization.

Right or wrong seems to me to be an almost religious question.

Laws can be bent to whatever social mores are agreed upon, for instance; capital punishment is lawful killing; beating your spouse to death is unlawful killing and so on.

For myself; I believe that killing, say, a convicted multi-repeat offense child molester would be quite alright. I could sleep at night knowing I had killed a child molester.

[Cleopatra]

Can you elaborate your question please?

Killing for revenge ( vendetta), for self-defense, for a lost lover ( very common "down here" ), killing during a robbery, what sort of killing you have in mind?
Or killing in general?

[ssibal]

Whether you mean only humans or anything, I think it depends on the circumstances.

[Seismosaurus]

Originally posted by Tony
yes

no

depends on the circumstances.

If you choose "depends on the circumstances", under what circumstances would you say it is ok to kill?

Depends on the circumstances.

For an individual civilian, you should only kill to directly defend life from a lethal (or apparently/potentially lethal) threat.

Governments have - and should have - a wider lattitude. I'm fine with the idea that governments can and do kill people for the sake of national and international interests. As a general rule, I prefer such killing to meet at least two criteria :

1) It should actually accomplish some useful purpose. For instance, I'm against capital punishment because I don't really see any point to it.

2) It should be kept to a reasonable minimum. As a rule, I'd rather my government didn't kill anybody unless it pretty much has to. So I'm all in favour of the idea of limiting collateral damage as much as you can in war, like recently in Iraq for instance.

[Kodiak]

Depends...

We've got (some arguably):

Warfare
Self Defense
Abortion
Capital Punishment
Euthanasia