for those who follow ahimsa is it wrong to kill a wart? or fight a cold? How is it possible to live a true nonviolent life when our white blood cells are constantly attacking intruders? can the buddha catch a cold?
mirco organisms arn't really "aware", they are only alive in the sicentific sense of the word, but they have no Consciousness.
There are different levels of sentient consciousness. The question is, is it moral to kill lower levels so that higher levels may continue. The lower levels have greater span, but less depth. This means that there are many more germs, cells, parasites, etc. than there are higher forms such as birds, animals, and humans (span). But although there are many more, they are not as advanced in evolution (depth). So, in this context, if the choice must be made, one should preserve the life of the higher form at the expense of the lower. But, if this is taken as a given approach, then all of evolution must be taken into account. By this I mean that the human bodily form is not necessarily the highest level of evolution. There are those that would contend that some mental and social human realms are at a higher evolutionary stage than the physical human body. So that, human life my be sacrificed for certain ideals, such as freedom. The idea, or meme, of freedom is an advanced evolutionary product of the human mind and resides in the noosphere, as opposed to the biosphere (some would argue). As the noosphere is more advanced than the biosphere, it would be morally correct to kill injurious humans to preserve freedom just as it would be correct to kill injurious microorganisms to preserve a dog, cat, or human. I believe this is in the writings of Ken Wilbur and Richard Pirsig, among others. But, don't take this as gospel fact as there are those that would disagree. Then there is Chodpa's point.
