*A little ethics experiment*

This was done after a night to sleep deprivation and partially inspired by a number of things. A) A quiz on how evil I really was (I scored 22% in case anyone wanted to know). B) Similar questions of this sort often relating to utilitarianism. C) The notion (maintained in a Law 1 class on Legal Theory) that a moral person would never kill strikes me as more than a little odd considering the notions of just war and justifiable homicide and most of all, self defence. But anyway, this isn't meant to be an exhaustive list and it's heavily skewed by reason that I put monetary gain as the first criterion.

Feel free to mix and match and come up with where you think your line is.

How long would it take before you kill a person?

1. You would kill a person

2. You would kill a person for a million dollars

3. You would kills a person for a million dollars and are guaranteed not to be caught

4. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught and the person is a stranger

5. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught, the person is a stranger whose death would not hurt you personally

6. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught, the person is a stranger whose death would not hurt you personally or your family

7. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught, the person is a stranger whose death would not hurt you personally or your family or anyone whom you care about

8. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught or convicted, the person is a stranger whose death would not hurt you personally or your family or anyone whom you care about and the person is a criminal

9. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught or convicted, the person is a stranger whose death would not hurt you personally or your family or anyone whom you care about and the person is a criminal who had committed a felony

10. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught or convicted, the person is a stranger whose death would not hurt you personally or your family or anyone whom you care about and the person is a criminal who had committed multuiple felonies

11. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught or convicted, the person is a stranger whose death would not hurt you personally or your family or anyone whom you care about and the person is a criminal who had committed a crime against humanity

12. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught or convicted, the person is a stranger whose death would not hurt you personally or your family or anyone whom you care about and the person is a criminal who had committed a crime against humanity and who is unrepentent

13. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught or convicted, the person is a stranger whose death would not hurt you personally or your family or anyone whom you care about and the person is a criminal who had committed a crime against humanity and who is unrepentent and would lead to a better world.

14. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught or convicted, the person is a stranger whose death would not hurt you personally or your family or anyone whom you care about and the person is a criminal who had committed a crime against humanity and who is unrepentent and would lead to a better world and would immediately save the live of one innocent person

15. You would kill a person for a million dollars, are guaranteed not to be caught or convicted, the person is a stranger whose death would not hurt you personally or your family or anyone whom you care about and the person is a criminal who had committed a crime against humanity and who is unrepentent and would lead to a better world and would immediately save the live of a busload of innocent persons

Coming from a person who supported the liberalisation/invasion of Iraq, it would obviously be remiss and hypocritical of me to say that I would never kill. But in the course of this experiment as I was working out the various changing criterions, I realise that for me to personally and volitionally kill a person would more than a fair bit. So much so that I wonder if such a situation would ever present itself to me in reality. So you people can breathe easy now =P

Peace.