What constitutes as a killing?

What makes person a killer?

Read these examples and you will realise its not very easy to define.


A
A granny attended a hospital where she had her ears waxed. Suppose that as a temporary treatment her ears been blocked by wax and she was instructed to remove it when she gets home. On the way out she was hit by a track while crossing the road simply because she didnt hear it coming. She passed away. Did doctor who gave her wax kill her?

B
In winter, a man spilled a bucket of water on the ground. It froze and turned into ice, someone was passing by, slipped on it and got killed. Did the man who spill water kill that person?

C
A woman decided to journey to Africa and wanted to obtain anti maleria treatment. At the pharmacy , the pharmacist recommended her "homophabic" treatment. It is not supported by doctors and only known as a alternative medicine to antibiotics. The pharmacist assured the woman that it would protect her from maleria. Woman bought the medicine, went to africa, got bitten by maleria carrying parasite, the treatment she purchased did not work and she died. Did the pharmacist kill the woman?

D.
Two guys were driving in a car on a motorway. The driver was slightly drunk but below the limit, he lost control and collided head on with another vehicle. The passanger in the first car was killed. Did the driver kill him?

E.
A robber stubbed an old man in the chest. The old man survived. But he was expected to live for another 10 years, he lived only 3. Did the robber kill him or did the man die on his own?

F
3 men both shot a man 1 time each. If it was only one shot the man would have lived, but with 3 he died. Who was the killer? The third man who shot? All 3?


And last
A blind man was attacked by a murderer. He had a sword on him, so he took out the sword and started moving it thro the air to make a perimeter around him so that murderer couldnt come close. Murderer came close and got nailed with a sword and died. Is the blind man a killer? He was merely moving a metal object in air. Wouldnt you say The murderer actually kiled his own self

Its like that man who jumped under a passing by track, is the track driver a killer all of a sudden?

[edit on 14-7-2006 by Freeman]

And if we analyse the things that are actually can be killed. What constitues as a killing? What makes you a "killer"?

I guess the most logical answer is human. Anyone thinks that killing a dolphin or a dog or an ape is same? What if it wasn't a human but some evolved alien form from another planet?

I think i posted it in a wrong forum, if you know a better place please move it

are you trying to figure out if you did something wrong?



[edit on 14-7-2006 by sanctum]

it's all a matter of intent. if you MEAN to kill someone, it's a murder. if it happens on accident, then it's either negligence, or simply an accident.

either way, the courts will try to screw you.

This post isnt about law. Its about spiritual implications and point of view.

Ive been told there is a label killer out there, something that once applied to you defines your whole characteristic. I am trying to see where this application starts and ends.



[edit on 14-7-2006 by Freeman]

Originally posted by Freeman
This post isnt about law. Its about spiritual implications and point of view.

Murder is like robbery--it takes something. The first murder in the bible, Cain killing Abel, was done out of envy. It is the attitude, not the act.

Ive been told there is a label killer out there, something that once applied to you defines your whole characteristic. I am trying to see where this application starts and ends.

Same principle. It all boils down to mind. But in this case--there is no label which can re-define a person unless the person allows it to re-define them. Our minds are powerful things--and mind games as well.

There is no label anyone could put on me (myself as an example since I can only speak of myself with true authority) that would convince me against my personal convictions. Even if my convictions about myself are self-delusion--and I resist the truth--my mind has more power over me than someone else's mind.

That's how 'curses' work--it is more the act of the one cursed (believing that the curse holds water or the curser truly has power over them) that makes the curse 'work.'

Have you heard expression you are what you eat?

Here you could say your soul is what you do.

Its not so much as a label but more like imprint on your consiosness, an imprint imprinted by your actions.

So i am trying to see where this imprint starts and ends.

But it is not what goes in, but what comes out, that constitutes the meaning.

Originally posted by 25cents
it's all a matter of intent. if you MEAN to kill someone, it's a murder. if it happens on accident, then it's either negligence, or simply an accident.

either way, the courts will try to screw you.

Exactly I mean I can have my backpack on the street and forget about for an hour, and a bicyclist may come by, strike it and then dying from the Injuries. I had no intent of killing that person I just forgot about my bookbag.

If you are wanting to go into specifics, I'd say it's all to do with intent, action and knowledge.

If I placed poisoned tacks in the path of someone, they walk over them and die, I'd be a killer. I had the intent, the action and the knowledge.

If I place poisoned tacks in the supposed path of someone, but then they do not take that path that day, does that make me a murderer? I'd say no. The intent was there, but the action and/or knowledge was not. Fate has decided for that day that I'm not a killer. I have another chance at being a killer or not.

If I dumped my garbage out the window onto a place where I know that people pass regularly and the bag had some sharp objects in it, and someone did pass over it, and died, I'd say yes, I'd be a killer. I may not have had the intent, but I did the action, and I had the knowledge.

If I dumped my garbage out the window into some secluded alley corner that had never before been used and it had some sharp objects that someone stepped on, I might not be a killer (the intent was not there, the knowledge was not, but the action was), but my carelesness would make me something pretty close.

If I dumped my garbage in a dumpster, and it had some sharp objects I had closed in a container in the garbage bag, and then someone came searching the bag, and opened it, and then someone came and slept on it, I did not have the intent, knowledge, or action, and I wouldn't consider myself a killer.

As for your last point, it might be selfish, but I'd say that only with humans it would be killing.

[edit on 17-7-2006 by babloyi]