What is an innocent person?

[addictedkoala]

In the context of murder or abortion when we say you cannot kill an innocent person, what exactly defines one as innocent? And does this definition change depending on the moral issue we’re deling with. Like the death penalty which can at least in theory be used morally, the men can’t be innocent since it’s moral to use the death penalty sometimes but we can never kill an innocent.

 

[1ke]

In the context of murder or abortion when we say you cannot kill an innocent person, what exactly defines one as innocent? And does this definition change depending on the moral issue we’re deling with. Like the death penalty which can at least in theory be used morally, the men can’t be innocent since it’s moral to use the death penalty sometimes but we can never kill an innocent.

One is not innocent when one commits a serious/violent crime such as murder, rape, terrorism, etc.

Innocent life includes unborn babies; the physically weak/sick/infirm; the mentally infirm; those who are old and frail and/or have dementia; those who are poor; those who are oppressed; those who oppose unjust laws/governments; those who seek a better life in a new land; those who are law abiding citizens, non-combatents in war, etc.

 

[beth40n2]

Definately the unborn babies, infants, those who have dementia or severe mental retardation.

If a person has been taught right and wrong they are not innocent if they commit a act they know is wrong. Example: A two year old who has been taught you do not throw food on the floor and they look you in the eye and smile while they throw food on the floor, they are not innocent. I make that two year old pick up the food to teach them. When they smile and are defiant, they are guilty.

 

[inocente]

My user name comes from one of our dogs. Other dogs may hang their heads, but when I scold her she assumes I’m feeling under the weather and need comforting, never connecting it back to her own behavior. Endearingly “innocent” but it makes training hard.

One good reason why the death penalty is illegal in many countries is that an innocent person may be found guilty by mistake.

For both reasons I guess innocent means not deserving punishment.

 

[thistle]

In the context of murder or abortion when we say you cannot kill an innocent person, what exactly defines one as innocent? And does this definition change depending on the moral issue we’re deling with. Like the death penalty which can at least in theory be used morally, the men can’t be innocent since it’s moral to use the death penalty sometimes but we can never kill an innocent.

Catholic definition of innocence from the Modern Catholic Dictionary:

INNOCENCE. Freedom from sin or moral guilt. Applied to Adam and Eve before the Fall, to those who have just been baptized, and to persons who never lost the state of grace because they never committed a grave sin. (Etym. Latin innocens: in-, not + nocere, to harm, hurt.)

 

[mdgspencer]

You cannot kill an innocent person, but you also cannot kill a guilty person. If we know someone is a criminal or violates the 10 commandments in some other way, we cannot kill them either.
I assume if people say you cannot kill an innocent person, sometimes they mean by an innocent person someone who is not physically assulting you or a family member, with or without a deadly weapon.

 

[_L]

I guess in the sense of abortion we use innocent person to mean someone who not only has not committed a crime meriting death by the standards of the justice system but in the moral sense someone who has no personal sin whatsoever and such is the case with the unborn.