With the alias "Mary Cluney" I assume that you, like me, are Roman Catholic. The Catholic church allows the use of proportionate force to resist and repel physical violence directed towards oneself and others. According to Thomas Aquinas, your act may have a double effect. Self-defense and preservation of others is a licit impulse, and a legitimate effect. Harm to the aggressor is not licit, but if it is not intended, but an unavoidable side-effect, then it is not a sin. One must not use more force than is necessary. For this, you don't need a lawyer, your conscience will do.
The use of this nit-picking type of ethical reasoning is, I believe, the reason so many lawyers are Catholics and Jews (Jews use similar ethical reasoning).
Protestants used to become fine trial lawyers because of the oratorical tradition in Protestant services, but this appears to be on the wane, except for blacks. |
