By Julia Nielsen
Why is it wrong to kill? Ask any person and they would agree that it is fundamentally wrong to kill a person outright. But ask them why, and few can give satisfactory answers. Given a Socratic (and annoying) stream of questions it is often easy to find inconsistencies with any argument for the inherent wrongness of killing. While there are outside factors which would affect the morality of an action like killing, most people would accept that killing is prima facie wrong. This means that when judged in a vacuum there is an inherent wrongness associated with killing. Such an inherent wrongness, or prima facie wrong, is tied to other actions such as rape and torture. But why? In my discussion. I hope to look at why it is ethically wrong to kill. If we are able to determine a satisfactory outline (or merely a workable one) I hope to apply this field of normative ethics to such topics as consuming meat and abortion. I shall invoke the theories of philosophers such as Kant and Mill to explore morality in relation to life. The discussion will likely branch into other realms of normative ethics which seek to outline how one should act, but hopefully will at least give you a stronger basis of reason for not already being a serial killer.
