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Would you kill the person who is about to kill?
#1
Would you kill the person who is about to kill?
So, you see an individual that is about to kill another person. You don't know the killer or the other person (both adults, let's leave kids out of this, both same race and sex). There are only moments to stop the killer and your only option is to kill. Not wound, not talk, not call police.

Would you kill?
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem.
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#2
RE: Would you kill the person who is about to kill?
Impossible to say, given the way the hypothetical is presented. Intriguing scenario, though.

Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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#3
RE: Would you kill the person who is about to kill?
Probably not.
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#4
RE: Would you kill the person who is about to kill?
Simply put, yes
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
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#5
RE: Would you kill the person who is about to kill?
Tough to say. The victim might have had it coming. Could be a shape-shifting alien or time-traveling Hitler. The other guy could be an intergalactic cop, a time-cop, or even just a regular cop, or something...

And what guarantee do I have, that I'm even able to kill the aggressor? What if I f*** it up - which seems very likely, given my lack of experience in assassination - and then I have not only time-traveling Hitler, but also his pissed off "friend" to deal with.

I say - let them sort it out between themselves. I'll focus my efforts on shrieking like a teenage girl and legging it the f*** out of there...
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw
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#6
RE: Would you kill the person who is about to kill?
(November 24, 2015 at 7:16 pm)mh.brewer Wrote: So, you see an individual that is about to kill another person. You don't know the killer or the other person (both adults, let's leave kids out of this, both same race and sex). There are only moments to stop the killer and your only option is to kill. Not wound, not talk, not call police.

Would you kill?

This hypothetical is too stretched.  But given all this, I suppose I would kill, as the chance of a killer being a criminal seem greater than the chance that he is getting revenge for his murdered family or something.
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#7
RE: Would you kill the person who is about to kill?
I don't know. But the moral answer to me is simple. I should kill the killer. Actual laws which don't always reflect my moral sensibilities, squeamishness, and risk might stop me.

In real life it's not so simple. How would I know the killer was going to kill?
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god.  If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
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#8
RE: Would you kill the person who is about to kill?
How would you know, if you don't know anything about the situation? How would anyone know, given any situation? The only person being able to answer this, is the one, who already has killed.

The only thing I can say for sure, if anyone is hurting my loved ones, even my dog, the bets are off.
[Image: Bumper+Sticker+-+Asheville+-+Praise+Dog3.JPG]
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#9
RE: Would you kill the person who is about to kill?
No way of knowing if the either is a good person or a bad person. Different version of throwing the fat guy off the bridge on the train tracks to stop the lose car to save those on that lose car.

Point is, what if you throw that fat guy off, and it turns out he was a child molester. Or, say he was a good guy but you don't know that, he stops the train car, you save everyone on the train, but one of them is Jeffery Dahmer as a kid.

Military sometime have to make quick decisions. As much as I hated Bush, on 9/11 if they could have shot down those jets before they hit the towers it would have killed everyone on the plane, but also would have saved everyone in the buildings, less lives lost.

The point of thought experiments like this is ultimately there is no right or wrong answer. It really has to be case by case.
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#10
RE: Would you kill the person who is about to kill?
I believe that my gut reaction would be no, I would not. Not necessarily what I should do, or would want to do. But what I think I likely would do.
How will we know, when the morning comes, we are still human? - 2D

Don't worry, my friend.  If this be the end, then so shall it be.
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