Had a little debate in English class today. A questionnaire was passed out with a great deal of deep questions. We had a long conversation about the first and weren't able to get past two. But these are my opinions on the statements with which we had to agree/disagree with.
Agree or disagree: It is never right to kill another person.
Several heartfelt, well thought-out arguments were made in favor of "agree", but I mantain that there are certain exceptions to the rule. Yes, no one should have the right to be judge, jury and executioner, but the term 'never' is a definite and there are certain situations that warrant killing. Situation A: A man just opened fire on a crowd of civilians. Does a policeman have the right to take out the shooter to save innocent lives? Absolutely. That should be a no brainer.
Situation B: Hitler. If somebody could have killed him before he enacted the Final Solution, would they have been in the right? I know that I would have killed him if I had the chance. There are certain things that can never be forgiven, and the deaths of 11 (or was it 12?) million innocents is one of those things. If he hadn't commited suicide, I gladly would have put a hole through his head.
This actually got a lot of people involved, so please, comment. We're debating more tomorrow, so I'll write about the other 9 statements when that's done.
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2 comments:
I mostly agree with your statement. I do believe that killing is all wrong, and killing for revenge isn't okay, but if someone else's life is at stake and there is nothing else to do, then it can be okay. This does mean that there has to be no other options and it is your absolute last resort, but you have to do what you have to do. Of course it is hard to justify killing and that can rarely be done, but I guess sometimes you have no other choice.
In your example with Hitler, I don't think that killing him is the right choice. You can just lock him up for the rest of his life. One more death doesn't compinsate for the other 11 million (yes you were right about that). It just makes it worse. A life is a life.
This is a classic debate. I really don't know what the right answer is. That's all I can say on the matter.
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