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*The most frequent - and highly controversial - phenomenon is the killing of unborn human life. '''Abortions''' are over a hundred times more frequent than homicides (56 million vs. less than half a million per year worldwide). In many countries it is a criminal offense, while in others, it is seen as a right of the pregnant woman to decide over her body and her self, i.e. her life. | *The most frequent - and highly controversial - phenomenon is the killing of unborn human life. '''Abortions''' are over a hundred times more frequent than homicides (56 million vs. less than half a million per year worldwide). In many countries it is a criminal offense, while in others, it is seen as a right of the pregnant woman to decide over her body and her self, i.e. her life. | ||
*Then there is the killing of people who wish to end their own life - because of old age, pain, and illness - by doctors at the request of their patients. The altruistic act of killing (active '''euthanasia''') is at least as controversial as abortion, and worldwide statistics or even estimates are nonexistent. | *Then there is the killing of people who wish to end their own life - because of old age, pain, and illness - by doctors at the request of their patients. The altruistic act of killing (active '''euthanasia''') is at least as controversial as abortion, and worldwide statistics or even estimates are nonexistent. | ||
*Similarly controversial is the act of taking one's own life. Suicide in all its forms (Émile Durkheim: egoistic because of loneliness, altruistic for furthering a cause, anomic because of a great loss or ritualistic because of collapse under extreme social expectations) is today more frequent than homicide, and according to statistics | *Similarly controversial is the act of taking one's own life. Suicide in all its forms (Émile Durkheim: egoistic because of loneliness, altruistic for furthering a cause, anomic because of a great loss or ritualistic because of collapse under extreme social expectations) is today more frequent than homicide, and according to statistics even more frequent than homicide and killing in the context of armed conflicts combined. | ||
*Then there is the killing of enemies in times of war. This kind of killing sticks out in its positive moral evaluation. It, too, is controversial, but its dominant moral and above all juridical evaluation is positive in the sense that it is seen as the obligation of a citizen to follow the state's call to arms, and those who refuse to do so are subject to punishment. Notwithstanding the fact that internal and international armed conflicts have cost the lives of a billion people over the course of history, the dissident voices that want to stigmatize and prohibit wars have not become effective (yet). | |||
*Killing in self-defense by private individuals, by police, by sub-state actors and by state actors is another modality of killing - and a popular excuse for aggression and over-reaction because it is one of the few possibilities of avoiding social shame and punishment for the act of killing. | |||
*Finally, there is the intentional killing of another human being at the sole (juridical) responsibility of the person who takes the other one's life. This homicide stricto sensu will be at the center of today's attention. | |||
== The Frequency of Homicide == | == The Frequency of Homicide == | ||