CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: SELF-DEFENSE

Self-Defense

Ethically the subject of self-defense regards the right of a private person to employ
force against any one who unjustly attacks his life or person, his property or good
name.  While differing among themselves on some of the more subtle and less practical
points comprised in this topic, our moralists may be said to be unanimous on the main
principles and their application regarding the right of self-defense. The teaching may
be summarized as follows:

I. Defense of Life and Person

Everyone has the right to defend his life  against the attacks of an unjust aggressor. For
this end he may employ  whatever force is necessary and even take the life of an unjust
assailant.  As bodily integrity is included in the good of life, it may be defended in  the
same way as life itself. It must be observed however that no more injury may be
inflicted on the assailant than is necessary to defeat his purpose.  If, for example, he can
be driven off by a call for help or by inflicting a  slight wound on him, he may not
lawfully be slain. Again the unjust attack  must be actually begun, at least morally
speaking, not merely planned or  intended for some future time or occasion. generally
speaking one is not  bound to preserve one's own life at the expense of the assailant's;
one may,  out of charity, forego one's right in the matter. Sometimes, however, one may
be bound to defend one's own life to the utmost on account of one's duty of  state or
other obligations. The life of another person may be defended on the same conditions
by us as our own. For since each person has the right  to defend his life unjustly
attacked, what he can lawfully do through his  own efforts he may also do through the
agency of others. Sometimes, too,  charity, natural affection, or official duty imposed
the obligation of  defending others. A father ought, for example, to defend the lives of
his  children; a husband, his wife; and all ought to defend the life of one  whose death
would be a serious loss to the community. Soldiers, policemen,  and private guards
hired for that purpose are bound in justice to safeguard the lives of those entrusted to
them.

II. Defense of Property

It is lawful to defend one's material goods  even at the expense of the agressor's life; for
neither justice nor charity  require that one should sacrifice possessions, even though
they be of less  value than human life in order to preserve the life of a man who
wantonly  exposes it in order to do an injustice. Here, however,we must recall the
principle that in extreme necessity every man has a right to appropriate  whatever is
necessary to preserve his life. The starving man who snatches  a meal is not an unjust
agressor; consequently it is not lawful to use  force against him. Again, the property
which may be defended at the expense of the agressor's life must be of considerable
value; for charity forbids  that in order to protect ourselves from a trivial loss we
should deprive a  neighbor of his life. Thefts or robberies, however, of small values are
to be considered not in their individual, but in their cummulative, aspect. A thief may
be slain in the act of carrying away stolen property provided  that it cannot be
recovered from him by any other means; if, for example,  he can be made to abandon
his spoil through fright, then it would not be  lawful to shoot him. If he has carried the
goods away to safety he cannot  then be killed in order to recover them; but the owner
may endeavor to take  them from him, and if the thief resists with violence he may be
killed in  self-defense.

III. Honor

Since it is lawful to take life in the legitimate defense  of one's material goods, it is
evidently also lawful to do so in defense of  chastity which is a good of a much higher
order. With regard to honor or  reputation, it is not lawful to kill one to prevent an
insult or an attack  upon our reputation which we believe he intends, or threatens. Nor
may we  take a life to avenge an insult already offered. The proceeding would not be
defense of our honor or reputation, but revenge. Besides, in the  general estimation
honor and reputation may be sufficiently protected  without taking the life of the
offender.

Zigliara, <Summa Philosophica>, III, I, iii;  St. Thomas, <Summa Theolgica>, II-II, Q
lxvii, a. 7;  Billuart, <Cursus Theolgiae>: in II-II St. Thomae, d. X, a. V.

JAMES J. FOX

Transcribed by Chuck Cilek

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an effort aimed at placing the
entire Catholic Encyclopedia on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to contribute to this
worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-mail at ([email protected]). For
more information please download the file cathen.txt/.zip.

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