Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[JRRNeiklot]

The guards had no proof that there was a medical emergency it could have been a ploy to get into the base. Faking needing help is one of the oldest tactics in the book.


I would do the same for my son that is human nature but does change the fact that those men didn't deserve to die.

Deserve? Deserve's got nothin' to do with it.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I'm no ethical expert, but I think mass genocide definitely qualifies as evil!

That may be, but so does standing there watching someone you love die when you can fix them.

 

[Elf Witch]

That may be, but so does standing there watching someone you love die when you can fix them.

It is evil if you kill innocents to save your loved one. Say your daughter needs a heart transplant if you go out and murder a person who is a match that is evil. Your daughter's life is not more important in the grand scheme of things that the life of the person you took to save her. Of course it is to you but that person has parents who feel the same way.

If these guards work for an evil group then I might be able to understand it except as far as we know Coulson didn't know that and that makes what he did in my book wrong.

 

[Morrus]

That may be, but so does standing there watching someone you love die when you can fix them.

Whether you happen to love them or not isn't relevant to the evilness of the act. In fact, I suppose it could even be argued that if you loved them, then there's an element of self-interest in your murder of strangers, making it even more evil.

 

[calronmoonflower]

Wild Mass Guessing time.

Alright, consider that immediately after the Guest House was destroyed an Asguardian showed up. Also the actual base dates back to WWII. It is possible that she was a guest at the facility that was captured, also with other Asguardians, after being sent to Earth to investigate the use of the cosmic cube by HYDRA. It could also be that the facility is related to the various super soldier projects that the government tried after the super soldier serum.

Alternately it could actually be gamma base, with the guest house being the prison part of the base. As such it would not be a direct part of SHIELD.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

It is evil if you kill innocents to save your loved one. Say your daughter needs a heart transplant if you go out and murder a person who is a match that is evil. Your daughter's life is not more important in the grand scheme of things that the life of the person you took to save her. Of course it is to you but that person has parents who feel the same way.

If these guards work for an evil group then I might be able to understand it except as far as we know Coulson didn't know that and that makes what he did in my book wrong.

The thing is, they didn't just go out and murder someone. They asked for help, and were denied, so they entered anyway. Then they came under fire and returned it in kind. So I don't see it as an evil act. An unlawful act, sure.

Your daughter's life is not more important in the grand scheme of things that the life of the person you took to save her. Of course it is to you but that person has parents who feel the same way.

Absolutely. And I'd hope it never came to that, but I have ONE job in life, and that is to protect my family. Evil/good, doesn't really come into play.

 

[Morrus]

Absolutely. And I'd hope it never came to that, but I have ONE job in life, and that is to protect my family. Evil/good, doesn't really come into play.

So if your daughter needed a transplant, and no volunteers were forthcoming, you would murder a stranger for their organ(s)?

I mean, evil/good does come into play -- that is definitely evil.

I'd argue that you *don't* only have only job in life; and that your responsibility to society outweighs your responsibility towards any individual person, no matter how strong your emotions towards that person are. And abdicating that responsibility is a choice.

Of course it's all silly hypothetical debate. I don't imagine anybody really knows how they'll act in extreme situations until they happen - and fortunately for most of us they are unlikely to happen.

 

[Kramodlog]

Whelp, someone needs to wear a shield of some sorts.

 

[Elf Witch]

The thing is, they didn't just go out and murder someone. They asked for help, and were denied, so they entered anyway. Then they came under fire and returned it in kind. So I don't see it as an evil act. An unlawful act, sure.



Absolutely. And I'd hope it never came to that, but I have ONE job in life, and that is to protect my family. Evil/good, doesn't really come into play.

I disagree. They had the technology to try a non lethal approach and they didn't even try. That was what bothered me the most. And again these men were doing their job they had not one shred of proof other than these armed men word that it was an medical emergency. The doctors were not even there. If we were watching a show and the bad guys used this ruse to get into the good guys medical research center we would be saying the guards were stupid to have let them in. Like I said a ruse of a medical emergency is one of the oldest in the book. I really hope there is going to be some consequences for what they did. Otherwise to me it will be bad story telling where it reduces the guards to expendable red shirts whose lives don't count. Mainly because the writers didn't want to deal with them afterwards.

Dr Who has done this where they race in and only save the companion and leave the rest to their fates it drives me crazy that they don't even try.

I disagree on this as well I am a mother and I love my son and if I had to I would kill for him even if I knew it was evil to do so. Your motivation might be noble saving your child but the act is evil.

 

[Nellisir]

Absolutely. And I'd hope it never came to that, but I have ONE job in life, and that is to protect my family. Evil/good, doesn't really come into play.

Motivationally, that's fine. But it doesn't absolve you of responsibility, and it doesn't make it a good or noble act.

My job, as a man with a family, is to make the world a better place for my family.