Okay, I just like to know, for parents: Your 18-21 year old child finds something that allows them to change the world, however the method to change the world requires ruthlessly killing people in huge numbers. For siblings: Same as above, but for siblings. In the end, your son/daughter or sister/brother end up becoming a monster. Despite their best intentions, they became a monster. You thoroughly deny your child or sibling is capable of such evil and have denied it to he very end, however. Your child or sibling is finally caught in the act and revealed as the ruthless mass murderer the police and military have been searching for all a long. Their mind has gone completely and are virtually unrecognizable, as if they are possessed by something evil. Your child or sibling then confirms it him or herself. Parents, would you kill your child yourself in anger and disgust, or out of sadness? Would you still try to deny it and try to bring them back to the light despite knowing it is far past it? Would you try to prevent their death or break down in horror? The same goes for siblings.
Goodness, my brother's the nicest guy in the world! Too tough to imagine. I'm not sure I get the set up - is the sibling a nice person and the thing has possessed or changed him? or is he like Darth Vadar who thinks one side is more potent than the other? Because one implies that evil is leeching off the object ( that if he didn't have it he wouldn't be that way - in a way he's kinda blameless ) while the other has to do with corruption due to power which - he'd be to blame because he's making conscious choices.
You propose: 1. Their mind has gone completely and are virtually unrecognizable, as if they are possessed by something evil. 2.Your child or sibling then confirms it him or herself. These are contradictory. Regardless, if that person is going around committing mass murder and I knew it, I would be obliged to stop him or her, especially if that person was my child, because I would be responsible for creating this monster.
Yes, the person has found something that corrupted them. Power. At first, your sibling, brother in this case, decided to use it for good. However lost sight of his goal and decided he enjoyed the power. To avoid arrest and to keep the power for himself, he ruthless took out anyone who dares to get in his way.
The child/sibling has became corrupted with power, they were/was good at first but they found something that gave them the thrill of power. The child has gone crazy with power and is eventually caught out by the law. The child confirms that they are the mass murderer everyone was hunting down.
I could not do that, I would try to find a way to stop him but not by killing. If you are just looking for realism, many parents have killed their children. I was reminded of Marvin Gaye who's father killed him when someone on The Voice sang a Gaye song. Weird circumstances though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Marvin_Gaye
You do not know until the very end when you catch the child in the act of trying to use said weapon to wipe out law enforcements, you finally discover that your child has been manipulating, lying, and using people for his/her own gain for an indefinite amount of time, including you, but you do not know this. Early in the year, you're informed that your child a long with everyone who attended the university on a specific day, is a suspect. Guest, student, faculty etc. But your child was smart enough to come out clean.
It's too hard for me to put myself in that situation. I would surely try talking some sense into him, but I don't know about killing. Maybe I would report him to the authorities, hoping he could get some help. But as GingerCoffee already pointed out, sadly there are lots of cases of parents killing their children. "I fratelli hanno ucciso i fratelli: Questa orrenda novella vi do." (The brothers have killed the brothers: these horrid news I bring.) - A. Manzoni
I remember in the Bad Seed - the mother attempts to kill Rhoda with sleeping pills. It was quite a powerful scene. If handled right, I think it could be done.
No, I couldn't kill my sibling! Are you crazy? I would of course try to stop her as best I could e.g. prison, but no, killing is not an option whatsoever.
My older brother is very nice in general, so if he did something like that I would first try to talk to him about it. I'd kill my younger brother, however. There's no saving him.
Depends on the sibling. There's a couple I'd murder with a rusty steak knife in a heartbeat. If it will save the world, that's a bonus.
This reminds me of the ending of The Good Son and a situation I go back and forth with in my mind and it always makes me uncomfortable. Before having kids I think I'd have answered an easy 'yes,' it being for the greater good and them no longer being the person that I knew and loved. Since having kids... it's really a catch-22. I don't know that I could kill them directly myself but, if they had become as you are describing, I might not stand in the way of others. I hate to say this but I don't value the lives of strangers the same as those I know - it'd make more a difference if the threat was to others I loved rather than mass, anonymous killings...that would probably be the one trigger that could push me over the edge. ETA - My connection to my children is greater and different from anyone else, so if I were answering this about my sister, I more easily could kill her if necessary. I love her but not like I do my kids.
I think this is one of those situations where people might try to imagine how it would feel like, and might convince themselves that they know what they would do, but when the time comes, who knows? People often claim that if someone severely hurt their child they'd kill them, and yet, when the harm occurs, majority are paralysed. It's where the abstract thought fails us. I have no idea what I would do and pray I never have to find out. Consequently, go with your heart, what makes most sense to you, and you won't be wrong no matter what outcome you present in your story.
Nonsense. Some of us know there is nothing that would make us kill our children. You can think what you want.
I'm not sure and exploration into the circumstances in which one would commit infanticide is really necessary. The mother say she wouldn't do it, and I would say once you have procreated you can offer a different answer to the question. Myself? I don't have any children, not for a lack of wanting, but I do have brothers I'd be quite happy to straight up murder. And anyone who says their siblings are "too nice" to dispose of is looking back on their childhood with the fondness that only 20 years distance can bring. Because any child with a brother or sister has deeply contemplated their murder at some point in their upbringing.
Wow, you completely missed the point and twisted it to use it against me, well done. I just recently watched the Death Note film, think of that scenario. Your son or sibling finds the death note. How is this then? Understand? The main character finds a supernatural book that allows the user to kill anyone around the world simply by having their name and face. Of course the main characters was a decent person but became corrupted from power and the initial shock from first killing twists him. His father however, still sees him as a son despite his said son tried to kill him at the end and was a complete monster, he comforts his son as he dies. My question is, how would the typical father or typical sibling react to this? Knowing a family was finally the ruthless mass murdering "Kira" and just so happened to be your son/daughter or older sibling. Maybe this will help those understand where I am getting at.
Right, you keep saying the same things, to which the response is: "Some of us know there is nothing that would make us kill our children." No matter how many more things you say, that is still the answer. Comparisons to movies, historical figures, or insane moral conundrums all have the same answer. And they will have that answer every time you ask.
WAIT! @GingerCoffee! What if you were living in the Peter Pan universe but at the bottom of the ocean and you had a cat but the cat couldn't breathe underwater and you were a man and your left testicle kind of hurt and your son is an oyster but he's Hitler the Oyster. Would you murder your child then?
I have no child, but I do have a sibling who I love dearly and I would deny my own sister would be capable of such evil.
Wait, did you start this thread just to tell us all how much you love your sister? I thought you were asking our opinions.
Not trying to be hostile, just replying to what you said, "You do not know until the very end when". I do know.
As a mother, there is a very definite answer to this question. No. Not if my child threatened and had the capacity to blow up the entire world and kill me along with everyone else. No, I would not. I would watch it happen. I would watch everything burn for them. But there are surely people who fail to bond this way with their children and their answer may be less selfish and more for the greater good. In regards to siblings ... possibly. If my siblings lost themselves in dangerous insanity and there was no hope of bringing them back, probably.
@MrPizzle : There was a Law and Order episode in which a mother discovered her teenage son was a paedophile. She ended up shooting him. It was a very moving and poignant episode and it seemed realistic enough. I think you need to decide what reaction from parent/sibling is most suitable for your story, what would create most conflict and facilitate the ending you envisaged. Then choose that.
