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Originally Posted by Mr Mephisto
The question of whether I would take one life to save another is a philosophical one; one that 99.99+% of us will never have to address.
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99.99+%? I'd certainly acknowledge that it's an uncommon occurence, but that percentage doesn't strike me as realistic.
Forget about citizens who find themselves in that unlikely situation; what about cops or those in the armed forces? These are people for which the possibility of lethal defense is right there in the job description. Such people need to be willing to defend with lethal force in case the situation arises. And that situation is no longer a mere classroom exercise, but instead a real-life possibility.
And then those of us that fit into the "99.99+%" still have to address whether we wish to support professions that swear to kill when necessary.
So actually, I find the hypothetical quite useful. It's an extreme example meant to test whether one would accept more normal instances of killing in others' defense.