by Jack » Fri 30 Mar 2007, 00:42:10
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RonMN', 'I') personally am not looking at it from a "religious" standpoint, I'm looking at it as if a 40 year old shot another 40 year old...I don't know if it should be called "ethics", "wrong", "moral"...but we all call it murder.
Not really.
Let's suppose a 40 year old homeowner is sitting peaceably in his home. A 40 year old criminal enters the house. The homeowner is (or at least says) he is in fear of his life. He terminates the invader. It isn't murder - in Texas, at least, it is a public service.
Or, we have a 40 year old Blackwater Security employee. He's working as a sniper in Iraq. He locates a target, as defined and permitted by the rules of engagement. He squeezes off a round and terminates the target. Not murder.
Or, a 40 year old executioner, acting in accordance with a valid court order, injects a 40 year old prisoner with designated poisons, carrying out the execution order of the court. Not murder.
In Roman times, a living, defective child might be put on a hillside to die. In our place and time, that's murder. In that place and time, it wasn't.
So we see that a willfully, intentional termination of one human by another human is not necessarily murder.
Murder is a social and legal construct; it varies over time, and with different societies.
So, I (being the law abiding fellow I am) would never violate the existing statutory laws of my society. I would not commit the criminal offense of murder.
However, if the act were legal (i.e., at least immunity from prosecution and civil indemnification), then I see no reason not to terminate such meat-bags as need removal. That clearly applies to the odd fetus. Or even not-so-odd ones.