teaearlgreyhot Wrote:Firstly, I think we need to clear up our terms. My understanding is that the word "kill" means to take the life of another and "murder" is specifically denotes the wrongful killing of another.
I would agree with this classification.
Quote:"Kill" isn't necessarily an action that is right or wrong.
Correct.
Quote:Murder however is by definition wrong. To say "murder is wrong if.." makes as little sense as saying "wrongful killing is wrong if..." as if one could say "wrongful killing is right if..." which is a contradiction.
I can dig it.
Quote:What's at issue here what acts of killing are specifically acts of murder (wrongful killing) and why they are murder.
Do you apply your criteria of what is murder to all living things or just humans? Am I to understand this is your thinking?
I do not conflate the murder of one human by another with a human killing an animal. Of course, there are moral considerations to be made with regards to the killing of other life forms.
Quote:All acts of murder are ones that involve a human killing another human "not out of self defense or not as a last resort"
Killing a kitten is not an act that involves a human killing another human "not out of self defense or not as a last resort".
Therefore, killing a kitten is not murder.
I agree.
