Would you kill to save a life?

[Abnegation]

A question, that has been rolling around in my head for quite some time. It's struck my views on morality and the love that can be held for an individual. So the question relates to whether or not you would kill another person, to save another's life? I'm not going to force a situation here though, there will be a lot of grey areas as I'm very much interested on what people post. Feel free to twist this in a way that applies to you best.

As for me, there's many clauses to this. I think that the easiest for me, would be in the situation where a loved one's life or serious well-being was being threatened by another person at the hand of malice. If the antagonist in this situation were to be targeting the person I love and that the only way I could protect them would be to take that person's life, I feel I might have to. Merely in the sense that the other person was content on doing the same to the one I'm protecting. I think a lot of people would feel this way. However, if it came down to something different, if I had to kill an innocent person, to save another's life, I don't think I could. No matter how close I am to the other person, I just do not have the lack of morality to do so. This might also apply to your own life however, depending on the circumstances, my age and who I'm saving, there's a possibility I would take my life for. I can count on my hand, the people I would risk my life for, I suppose this would apply to those. So, would you kill to save a life?

 

[Eliminator Jr.]

Well if there was a deranged murderer on the loose and they were about to attack my little sister or something of course I'd step in and attack him/her. However if I had to kill an innocent person to save someone from cancer or something I wouldn't do it. No use killing an innocent person, then you're no better than the murderer. Obviously there's heaps of different scenarios for this question, I can't be bothered covering every single one, but I'll just say in most cases I would not interfere but in some cases which I found extremely unjust I would.

 

[helix]

30 Seconds to Mars!
I tried to think up all the situations I may be put in where I would be given the choice to kill someone in order to save someone else... And I don't think I would take the choice. I'd kill myself, but I wouldn't kill another to save someone. I don't have to right to take away anybody else's life, because that's their life, not my own.
Not saying I'd sit back and watch a murder happen if I could interfere, but I wouldn't resort to killing if I could just paralyse the murderer.

 

[Charizard★]

Good question.

I would rather kill myself to save a loved one, rather then kill someone else. But, when it comes down to it, if I had to kill another person to save someone who is dear to me, I would. (If I can't kill myself tho.)

 

[cynical_terror]

It depends on a lot of things...like if the person is close to me. If this person is closer to me than the person I'm killing, then I probably would. But the thing is that I wouldn't want to kill in a violent way. I already have hallucinations of horrible death-related stuff so I'd probably kill the person with some kind of poison or something. I wouldn't be able to use a knife. So if the person asking me to murder the other person let me use poison or something of the sort, I'd be cool with it.

But not knives or stabbing or anything like that. I would probably cry. ;_;

 

[Saitou]

I would never kill myself to save a loved one or anybody. I do not sacrifice. But if killing someone I don't know, who's not innocent or has done something wrong, to save a loved one, I would kill him.

 

[Dawn]

That's entirely dependent on who the person in question is.

But yeah, I'd kill under the right circumstances.

 

[Rogue planet]

To save someone I loved? I'd kill anyone in any situation. Not only would I prefer it to be that way, I also feel that it's my duty.

As for killing myself, it would depend on a significant number of circumstances so I couldn't really say what I would choose in that situation.

If I had to kill an innocent to save someone I'm not in love with, I wouldn't do it.

If the person I have to kill is a (potential) murderer themselves then I would always take the option of killing them. Ironically, the murderer I kill could have been a murderer for the reason I stated first, they may have been saving someone they loved. It's weird to think about it in that way, I'm not sure what to make of it.

Hopefully such choices won't ever have to be made anyway. But I think everyone has the capability to kill if they're driven to the edge.

 

[Aether★]

Depends of the circumstances. For saving the ones I love, I'll kill everyone who is dangerous.

 

[Lickeh Lickeh]

If it was someone that I respected and loved, without hesitation I would kill them.

 

[twocows]

In general, I would not kill someone unless it was in defense of myself or others. For instance, I would not kill a homeless person to save my family, despite me placing more value on my family than a homeless person. If the homeless person was attacking my family, however, and there was no way to disable him without killing him, I would have little choice but to kill him. It goes against my morality to attack someone who has no intent to harm, though.

 

[Bloo]

This reminds me of a movie (The Hitcher). It has alot of blood, so don't watch it.
But basicaly:

Spoiler:

After all her oved ones are killed by the murderer, and her boyfriend is split in half by two trains going in opposite directions, she finally gets the guts to kill the murderer. But, in my opinion, I think she becomes as emotionally unstable as him, so in essence, she becomes a sort of reincarnation of him. Which is bad.

I really don't know where i stand, but if the person was going to get killed after a bunch of other people were, I would have to, because at least I would save one life.

 

[Zebeedoo]

It depends who it is really... if it was someone in my family/a close friend, then yes. If someone was threatening (Gawd, can't spell) them with a weapon or something I'd do it. But if someone was threatening them with just words (if you get me) then I wouldn't kill.

 

[Stellar]

It would really depend on the people involved, but generally, yes. People kill in self-defense every day, and the way I see it that's no different than killing to defend the life of an innocent person. If the person was someone I loved, then I doubt I'd give it a second thought. The question I'm thinking about now is: would you rather die for someone (especially a loved one) or kill for them? I don't mean to change the topic, but it popped into my head while I thought about my answer and it seems like a very interesting question.

 

[Lαvi]

I will. I do not care for the other person or what happens to him, as long as the certain someone I care about is okay. This may be cruel and a little bit selfish, but that's just me, a crazy person who kills anyone that harms or will harm my loved ones.

 

[Ryoutarou]

I suppose this is a pretty situational question and because of that, it would be hard to ever really have a clear answer. I know a lot of people who would never be able to live with themselves should they be saved because someone killed for their sake, so that's a concern you would need to think about, though I honestly don't think it's one that would come up in the heat of the moment. People can clearly line up their morals and what they think when they're posting about it, but in a do or die situation where a loved one is in imminent danger, things can quite easily change and I'd imagine there would be many people surprised at what they would do to save a loved one. Perhaps it'd be a choice that would haunt them for the rest of their life, but having a theoretical scenario presented as opposed to the actual situation are worlds apart.

So I'd say...probably?

 

[Ray Maverick]

That depends on how much I love the person, of course, and, if the situation's like that, how much I hate the other person. There's not much to say here.

 

[Esper]

Rather than debating the morality of killing one kind of person versus some other kind or person, or to save a loved one versus a stranger, I think for me it would come down to how stable I was at the moment and how easily I could kill another person in that moment. Am I feeling angry and traumatized? Would I have a weapon? I don't think I would be able to kill someone in my 'normal' state of mind. And even if I was furiously mad I don't think I could, I dunno, strangle someone with my bare hands. I'd need to be able to do it very quickly or my aversion to hurting people would stop me after I started to hurt someone.

tl;dr Probably not, but you never know.

 

[Belinda]

I honestly don't know, when it comes to some family and friends, most likely especially my dogs, they mean a lot to me. On the other hand if one bothers to kill I love dearly, they'll face the same killing themselves. Just saying.

 

[Jordan]

Morally I'm not against killing if that's my last viable option. In a real life situation, though, I'd have a difficult time taking anyone's life.