[Avodah] Pikuach Nefesh

[Zev Sero]

On 12/06/2011 2:01 PM, Ben Waxman wrote:
> By that thinking, what right is there to take down a rodef? Maybe he'll
> do teshuvah?

You take down a rodef because right now he is about to kill someone.
It makes no difference what his intent is; if he poses an immediate
threat he's a rodef.  That doesn't mean his victim will inevitably
die if he's not taken down.

  
> Rather, you judge the situation as it is right now, at this moment
> and leave the future to the future.

But that's not what was proposed here.  What was proposed here is that
we must treat the intended victims as if their deaths are inevitable,
and as if they were already dead.  And I don't think one can do that.


-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                      - Margaret Thatcher