Painless killling is…

When it comes to painless killing, one must first considered whether the person dying knows of their impending death. If the person knows that they are about to die, then they would probably prefer not to suffer from it. From a utilitarian point of view, it would also be better for the person not to suffer in death, thereby lowering the amount of people feeling pain. Of course, one could also look at this in the perspective of the killer. If the killer is about to murder someone who knows that it is coming, they may care whether or not they inflict pain on the person in doing so. Of course, if it is like assisted suicide, then the killer would probably feel better about their part in the act if they make it painless. In that case, not only would the killer feel less pain but the person requesting the assisted suicide would then get a painless killing, so in a utilitarian point of view it would be morally correct to commit a painless murder.

Things change when the person dying does not know that they are about to die. If they die, they more likely than not did not want that, so of course it would be better to at least take the suffering out of the act. Of course, you are then depriving them of the experience of death. Though who really wants to have a slow death just so that they would know what dying feels like before you are gone? To each their own. From a utilitarian point of view, it ultimately seems like they best option would be to keep the killing painless so that the killer would feel less suffering from any guilt and so that the person dying has no physical pain, no matter how they may feel about dying internally.

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