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Objection 1: It would seem unlawful to kill any living thing. For
the Apostle says (Rm. 13:2): "They that resist the ordinance
of God purchase to themselves damnation." Now Divine providence has
ordained that all living things should be preserved, according to Ps.
146:8,9, "Who maketh grass to grow on the mountains . . .
Who giveth to beasts their food." Therefore it seems unlawful to
take the life of any living thing.
Objection 2: Further, murder is a sin because it deprives a man of
life. Now life is common to all animals and plants. Hence for the
same reason it is apparently a sin to slay dumb animals and plants.
Objection 3: Further, in the Divine law a special punishment is
not appointed save for a sin. Now a special punishment had to be
inflicted, according to the Divine law, on one who killed another
man's ox or sheep (Ex. 22:1). Therefore the slaying of dumb
animals is a sin.
On the contrary, Augustine says (De Civ. Dei i, 20):
"When we hear it said, 'Thou shalt not kill,' we do not take it
as referring to trees, for they have no sense, nor to irrational
animals, because they have no fellowship with us. Hence it follows
that the words, 'Thou shalt not kill' refer to the killing of a
man."
I answer that, There is no sin in using a thing for the purpose for
which it is. Now the order of things is such that the imperfect are
for the perfect, even as in the process of generation nature proceeds
from imperfection to perfection. Hence it is that just as in the
generation of a man there is first a living thing, then an animal, and
lastly a man, so too things, like the plants, which merely have
life, are all alike for animals, and all animals are for man.
Wherefore it is not unlawful if man use plants for the good of
animals, and animals for the good of man, as the Philosopher states
(Polit. i, 3).
Now the most necessary use would seem to consist in the fact that
animals use plants, and men use animals, for food, and this cannot be
done unless these be deprived of life: wherefore it is lawful both to
take life from plants for the use of animals, and from animals for the
use of men. In fact this is in keeping with the commandment of God
Himself: for it is written (Gn. 1:29,30): "Behold I
have given you every herb . . . and all trees . . . to be your
meat, and to all beasts of the earth": and again (Gn. 9:3):
"Everything that moveth and liveth shall be meat to you."
Reply to Objection 1: According to the Divine ordinance the life
of animals and plants is preserved not for themselves but for man.
Hence, as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei i, 20), "by a most
just ordinance of the Creator, both their life and their death are
subject to our use."
Reply to Objection 2: Dumb animals and plants are devoid of the
life of reason whereby to set themselves in motion; they are moved, as
it were by another, by a kind of natural impulse, a sign of which is
that they are naturally enslaved and accommodated to the uses of
others.
Reply to Objection 3: He that kills another's ox, sins, not
through killing the ox, but through injuring another man in his
property. Wherefore this is not a species of the sin of murder but of
the sin of theft or robbery.
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