Originally Posted by
Ruroken
I feel that killing someone in any case is not permissible. Not to drag this off topic, but it comes down to choice (among other things). When you kill someone, you make a choice for them. A very, very big choice. A choice that was never yours to make. You also make a choice for yourself, you choose to kill a fellow human and all that comes with it. This is why suicide is not the same as murder, it is your choice to make. Now if that choice is the right one or not is a different question. You still kill a human, and all that comes with it.
Now you might say that the other person made his or her choice when he or she committed whatever act that made you feel you had the right to kill him or her. Perhaps they killed and raped a child. A heinous act by anyone's standards. Did the child "deserve" to die? No. But neither do they. Lock them away for the rest of their lives, do what you have to do to sleep at night with the exception of torture or murder. I feel that making someone live after doing that is far worse then killing them. Imagine one day waking up and realizing the significance of what you had done, and then having to live with that.
This works both ways, because the day YOU wake up and realize the significance of what you've done, you need to live with that for the rest of your life. It's true you may never get it, and live blinded, but its quite the risk...
People often forget, in their misplaced righteous anger, that abusers were abused. Commiters of violent crimes are not objects of hatred, but pity. A few horrible life experiences is all that separates you from them, if even that much.
And as for people coming at you with knives and such, "fighting for ones life". Do you honestly need to kill them to get away safely? Nope.
In my opinion? Absolutely. Do as the Buddhists do, live your life while trying to kill a little as absolutely necessary. For instance, when you boil water, microorganisms die. Now boiling water is somewhat of a necessity, so one must realize that one cannot live life without taking it to some degree.