Is murder justifiable?

Answer 1

Murder is the intentional taking of an innocent life. That is never justified.

HTH

Charles

Answer 2

In the case of self defense, i feel yes, it is justifiable. The same thing applied to protecting your family, even in war time yes, it is justifiable. It is human nature to "protect." And as humans, there will always be wars.
As far as cold blooded murder, wife, family member, neighbor, or just for the sake of murder, NO.
And yes, I do support the death penalty. An "eye for an eye."
It's been proven time after time, that a "rehabiltated prisoner"
is safe to live in a "normal" socielty, NOT,

Answer 3

Not if you follow the rule commonly preached in most societies: "Do unto others as you would have done unto you." If you murder someone, it means you would have them do the same to you.

The perverted version, "Do unto others as they do unto others" allows justifiable murder, but is not the same thing as the "Golden Rule." It does not take into account that not everyone follows the rule.

The proper way to proliferate the Rule is to lead by example...that is, in actuality, the essence of the Rule.

If Bob murders someone, it does not mean Bob lives by the rule. Hence, it does not follow that Bob would want someone to murder him. So the murdering of Bob would not exemplify the true Rule.

True exemplification of the Rule is tough. It requires punishment, remedy, and forgiveness. You won't see it in most societies. I can't think of any off the top of my head. It is easy, however, to follow Hammurabi's Law of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." In this case, all the citizens would need dentures, but the dentists would be blind and unable to make them.

What would be proper punishment for murder? Certainly not execution, which is a fancier word for murder. If murder is wrong, it is wrong on all counts. A proper punishment would be imprisonment with frequent visitations from those affected by the murder (victim's family; murderer's family; clean-up crew; etc.). Murder is an inhumane act performed by humans. Teaching the consequences of the actions is a way of teaching humanity to those humans.

In the instances of war, which can occasionally be justified, it is more difficult. Nations under attack are justified in defending themselves. But lack of communication tends to result in many wars and attacks that could have otherwise been prevented. Wars, in general, require much lengthier responses and more thought out answers to this issue, as wars are on a much larger scale with much more at stake.

I still find wars to be largely unjustified, but in terms of smaller-scale murders, no, they are not justified on any means other than the most extreme of self defense (incapacitation is preferred).

I find these thoughts realistic, though most will find them romantic.

Answer 4

It depends what you mean by 'murder'. This is usually reserved for killings which are not justifiable, so by definition - no.

For example we have several people in the UK who will never be released from prison, Sarah Payne's killer, the Soham murderer, Nielson, Sutcliffe and so on. Now I support the death penalty in those cases, and would have done for the Krays and moors murderers, and would not call that murder, whereas some people always call judicial execution murder.

Remember that Hindley at the end was begging to be allowed to die, several others such as Fred West and the bad doctor Shipman have killed themselves.

Of course there are gray areas such as killing intruders in your home, or in self defence, but on the whole I would say that murder in its true definition would have to involve some level of premeditation, and innocence on the part of the victim and so is completely unjustified, and that there are occasions when killing someone could be justified, but would not be murder.

I hope this helps.

Answer 5

By definition, no. Killing is a broad term that covers murder, manslaughter, execution etc. Murder is wrongful killing, but not all killing is murder.

I'm guessing you meant to ask, "is killing ever justifiable?", and I'd say yes.

I think there's room for philosophical discussion here though. There are those who believe that it is wrong to participate in a lawful execution, wrong to fight in a war and even that it is better to die than to kill in self-defense. I disagree on all points. I'm personally opposed to the death penalty, but I don't believe that it is immoral for an executioner to carry out his duty to the state. On the other hand, I think that if a physician administers a lethal dose, he's violating his Hippocratic oath. I wouldn't want to be his patient after that.

Answer 6

Even if we agree that murder means the unlawful killing of an innocent person, murder might be justified some of the time...for instance, if you're faced with the choice of killing an innocent person (even a child) to save 1,000,000 people. In fact, you could even justify the torture of an innocent child in this scenario as well.

Answer 7

Understandable, perhaps, but not justifiable. The French have a defence of a crime of passion, which is not available in the UK.
The act of self defence is a legal defence to a charge of murder, since murder has to be with intent to kill, so the act of self defence may lead instead to a charge of manslaughter.

Answer 8

It depends what you mean by murder.

Killing innocent people is murder?

Killing someone by accident is manslauhter I think.
There different degrees of murder.

The death penalty doesnt appear to be murder though it is killing someone.

There are many factors. Generally no one has the right to take anyones life even if they done something bad to you or your family. Allthough some laws will say otherwise

Answer 9

to kill a Innocent is murder and it is never justifiable

Answer 10

Justifiable homicide is usually considered in situations of self defense, but you have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that your life was in emanate danger.