Thou shall not kill....circumstantial or not?, Is is justified to kill baby Hitler? Options

[XoJennaoX]

As a young person you travel back in time to pre-World War II Germany, intending to kill the infant Adolf Hitler in order to prevent the horrors of the Holocaust. Disguising yourself as a housekeeper, you infiltrate the Hitler household, where you experience the environment that possibly shaped Hitler's warped thinking - his abusive, racist father and his weak, ineffective mother.

But killing a baby is much more difficult than you'd imagined, and though you try several times to commit the act, you find yourself either unable or prevented from doing it. Finally, you steal the infant out of his crib and though you are followed by the child's nanny, manage to leap from a bridge, drowning both yourself and the baby Hitler.

But history may not be changed! The maid spies a mentally ill gypsy woman sitting with her baby, and buys the child, passing him off to the unwitting Hitler parents as their own baby.

What do you think? Was Hitler born evil (was it in his innate nature to be who he was) or was it other factors? What do you do? Would you kill baby Hitler, or would you not? Would you sacrifice yourself? If you do kill him, you must take the guilty plea of having committed murder on an innocent life. Taking note that Hitler (as an infant) is completely innocent and you yourself have to kill him. It is harder than it sounds.

[racoons > you]

again, you are still just - you. You do not have power of any kind. Is it realistic to say you could of done these things?

none of it is realistic... thats the point of a hypothetical situation.

my point was that rather than killing hitler, it would have been more effective to alter theh circumstances which lead him to become a murderous dictator

[XoJennaoX]

none of it is realistic... thats the point of a hypothetical situation.

my point was that rather than killing hitler, it would have been more effective to alter theh circumstances which lead him to become a murderous dictator

hmmm i understand and everything that this is a hypothetical situation and i agree that your actions would be better.... but again you have to take the premises as they are....in other words you can't try and change cicumstances. you only have the power to do one thing....kill him or not.......i know it really sucks but to be logical in philosophy you must.