Question for Christians....?

Question

A while back, I asked a question and explained how "thou shall not kill" in the Ten Commandments does not apply to unborn fetuses. I got a lot of answers basically saying "It isn't 'kill. It is murder". This brings me to my question: What is the difference between killing a person and murdering a person?

Answer 1

To me their is no diffrence. Some just think that the word muder has more of a an effect on people.

Answer 2

Killing is simply the taking of another life, be it man or animal. Murder is the wrongful killing of a HUMAN being.

Thus murder involves killing, but killing is not necessarily murder. Killing may or may not involve a moral/legal element, but murder ALWAYS have a moral/legal element.

Lastly, to reiterate, you can only murder fellow humans. Murder is never applied to animals, at least not that I know of. And because the unborn child is a human, it is murder most of the times. I think calling it a foetus is sometimes just done to depersonalise the unborn child to remove the moral/legal element. Every parent of the unborn child always refer to the life in the womb as a person, and not a thing.

Answer 3

Ah none and it is premeditated and some people get rich doing it. What do U think about that? And this child done nothing to deserve being killed. Oh if as some say the fetus is not alive! Oh really then why did the child have to be killed? As a former fetus I appose abortion. To say a fetus is not a person is like saying you are not a person huh. That child is in heaven however and some day I hope that child will meet His or Her parents. Abortion is forgivable. What an awesome God!!!!!

Answer 4

Well, the difference is, of course, semantic - but it may still be important.

I would say that "kill" and "murder" are indeed different. You can "kill" anything that's alive, from a person, to an animal, to a virus, to a political movement. People only use "murder" to refer to the killing of a person.

There's no debate at all over whether or not an abortion involves killing. It simply does. The question is, is it murder to kill a human blastocyte? Or is it no different from, say, "killing" a tumor before it spreads?

Answer 5

While the effect is the same (somebody ends up dead), I believe the real difference comes down to intent, circumstance, and authority. The "killer" must absolve themselves of any vested interest, beyond their own immediate physical survival, for the killing to be ruled "not a murder".

1. Intent: Was the killing done with intent, or was it accidental? Someone who admits intent to kill another human being must show they had a reasonable circumstance and authority for their act.

2. Circumstances: Unfortunately, there are times when killing another human becomes necessary. This is an ugly part of human history. The most common acceptable circumstances for justifiable killings are: war (killing the enemy), execution (capital punishment for severe crimes, done by governing bodies), and (rarely) self-defense (someone is trying to kill you while committing a crime).

If a person kills another outside of these circumstances, it's pretty easy to assume they lack the third qualification: authority to order/commit the killing.

3. Authority: Only governmental bodies have the authority to declare war or execute criminals. Anybody else that commits such an act, without the governing authority's order, has committed a murder. Self-defense killing is more difficult to prove; whoever claims "self defense" for killing another had better be prepared to prove their claim, again, to a governing body. They have to prove they had a lack of vested interest and intent outside of providing for their own (or other's) physical survival.

Failing these 3 tests, we can assume a killer has committed murder.

On to Abortion.

What is a human "fetus"? A "fetus" is an unborn human being, an individual with their own DNA, blood type, skin color, fingerprints, gender, and brainwaves. A "fetus" is a human being in a particularly dependent stage of his or her life; the natural product of human reproduction, not a parasite. A "fetus" is an unborn child.

Unborn children cannot be considered targets in a war, so that is out. They cannot be convicted of a crime, and therefore cannot be executed by a governing body, so that is out. Only in extreeeeemely rare cases does a pregnancy actually imperil the physical life of a pregnant mother, so in 99% of abortions, "self defense" is out!

While the abortionist can claim the legal authority to kill these small people (abortion is legal in the US), the abortionist cannot claim immunity from "vested interest". The abortionist makes his living from killing...he gets paid for it.

We pay soldiers to strike specific military targets and kill other soldiers. Abortionists get paid to kill helpless human beings.

Executioners get paid to kill convicted criminals, who have had multiple trials and appeals, and spent decades on Death Row. Abortionists get paid to kill children innocent of any crime, without a trial.

I believe I have shown the difference between a random act of "killing" and "murder". I also believe I have separated the abortionists' killing act from the "justifiable" list, making most abortions murder.

Answer 6

Im afraid that anything god has given to us we are to take care of.
It DOES apply to an unborn fetus. That is the same as killing its Murder also. Thou shalt not kill. Same thing my friend.
Id hate to be standing in front of Heavenly Father trying to explain to him why id did this to an innocent baby.
Use your comon sense there is no difference.
See ya

Answer 7

To me, they are pretty much the same. I think murder might be used if you intended to kill the person. If it was self defense, some people might consider it killing instead of murdering. That's the only thing I could think of. Both are sinful though!

Answer 8

i think killing is like un intentional killiing like an accidental hit run but u stop to help the person and they die but murder is when u mean to hurt someone....... on the unborn fetus thing well if its before the 12 weeks or whatever its not really a person at that stage its just a bunch of cells

Answer 9

Choosing to get rid of a baby is murder. It is killing an innocent precious life. From the moment it is created. I feel more sorrow for the ones that choose abortion and do abortion than the dead baby. The baby will go to heaven. They however -well I can only imagine their fate.

Answer 10

יב לֹא תִרְצָח
The original Hebrew translates as "Thou Shalt Not Murder".

Murder is defined as:
Etymology: partly from Middle English murther, from Old English morthor; partly from Middle English murdre, from Anglo-French, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English morthor; akin to Old High German mord murder, Latin mort-, mors death, mori to die, mortuus dead, Greek brotos mortal
1 : the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought
2 a : something very difficult or dangerous b : something outrageous or blameworthy

So it's killing with forethought.

Fetus:
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin, act of bearing young, offspring; akin to Latin fetus newly delivered, fruitful -- more at FEMININE
: an unborn or unhatched vertebrate especially after attaining the basic structural plan of its kind; specifically : a developing human from usually two months after conception to birth -- compare EMBRYO 1b

So prior to two months a fetus is actually a zygote:
Etymology: Greek zygOtos yoked, from zygoun to join -- more at ZYGOMA
: a cell formed by the union of two gametes; broadly : the developing individual produced from such a cell

Prior to two months after gestation, a "fetus" under definiations in english, is a collection of cells.

Answer 11

In war it is killing.
An accident is killing.
Murder is the planing to kill a human being, giving it forethought.
Tomorrow I am going to get a gun and kill this guy. This is murder.