Is it a sin to kill someone in self-defense?

This question is similiar to the question posed concerning a soldier killing in a war. However, this was directed more toward the everyday person who may find themselves in a situation in which they may need to defend their life.

The Church states that we must respect the dignity and right to life. This applies the protecting the life of others but also applies to our own lives. This means that we have a responsibility to protect the dignity of our own life. That is why suicide is such a grave sin: it violates the dignity of all life including ours.

Self-defense is when a person is protecting the dignity of their own life. The person has a right to defend himself against a threat to his own life. This threat must be real, immenent, and proportionate. Let me give a couple of examples. The person threating your life must have the means to do so. Simply making threatening remarks to you is not a real threat. A person threatening you with a gun is a real threat. An immenent threat must be one in which an immediate response is necessary to defend oneself. A person calling you on the phone and threatening to kill you does not mean you can go over to their house and kill them claiming self defense. A person with a gun or knife standing in front of you constitutes an immenent threat. A proportionate threat means that the threat must require self-defense to protect your life. You cannot shoot a person who is attacking you with a sharpened pencil. You can shoot a person threatening to shoot you. Also, the self-defense must halt when the threat is no longer there. You can legitimately shoot a person once who is threatening you with a gun. If the shot wounds the person, he drops his gun and falls to the ground, you cannot continue to empty your gun into the person and claim self-defense.

The morals of self-defense are meant to protect one's life. It should only result in the death of the attacker when absolutely necessary and when no other options remain. The taking of another's life is never a good thing but it can be a necessary thing that does not violate the Commandment "Thou shall not kill" as well as the Jesus' command to "love onself." Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 07:30 | link | comments (1) |
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#1  11 April 2008 - 12:48

 

I bet the google is going to light up after it crawls these posts!

Good work on some touchy subjects, Father.

Blessings,
Joe

Anonymous

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