Originally Posted by
Paul Or Nothing II
In fact, defining coercion upon "intent" is a big blackhole, it's a pandora's box of its own. Let's go back to the parents starving their children, again, are they obligated to feed them? Is anyone obligated to feed anyone? No. The "intent" in this case is obvious, it's going to lead to children's death but does that mean the parents are using coercion? No.
Let's say a Christian priest desecrates Qur'an or photo of Mohammed or whatever with an "intent" to incite Muslims & demonstrate their violent nature, then some Muslims riot, vandalize & let's say kill some Christians, did the Christian priest commit coercion upon anyone? No.
As I've said, once you start trying to criminalize people based on "intent", it's going to lead to all kinds of scenarios where arbitrary judgments are going to be have to be made & people are going to disagree quite a bit & all you're going to end up with is crappy laws, words of which can be manipulated more wildly by lawyers, good for lawyers, good for their criminal-clients, bad for the society as a whole.
That's why it's important to keep laws simple & solid, so that they can't be wildly manipulated - if a person commits an act that's not voluntary, then it's not justifiable.
Further, there may be People-A (let's say like the person hiring the hitman) & People-B (like the hitman) - now, the incidence of crime is going to be higher in a society where both types of people exist compared to a society where People-B don't exist.
Somebody may want someone else killed but the mere "intent" itself is never sufficient to kill, it requires people willing to use direct coercion (like People-B), if nobody is willing to use coercion & kill then nobody dies no matter how much someone wants to kill somebody else, so given that he has a free choice, only the hitman can be said to engage in an unjustifiable, involuntary, coercive act.