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Or is the instinct that strong that you are beholden to it even to your own detriment?

For me, yes, absolutely. I can't imagine what it would take for me to kill something bigger than a fly, and even that takes a good amount of persuasion on my non-instinctive part. (And, yes, I am a complete hypocrite when it comes to meat.) That doesn't mean that those situations don't exist, only that I have not encountered them yet.

And it not only supersedes my personal wellbeing, but the wellbeing of others. Like those who I genuinely believe would be better off dead and support euthanasia for; I don't think I could ever pull the plug. I was part of putting a cat to sleep about two years ago and I'm still not over it: not the loss -- I all but hated that cat -- maybe the loss to Teri, but definitely the fact that I was part of choosing to kill it. I know that the cat was in terrible pain, but I still feel pain from choosing to kill it. I can't kill mice that our cats toy with, despite the fact that they're in so much pain. It's definitely an integral part of my being.

I think that other people have that instinct much less than I do. I think that it's a sliding variable that ends with psychopathic killers. (I also think that there are others at that point on the scale who don't have the initial desire to kill, but are equally psychopathic. I think a lot of politicians and other successful ambitious people fit that description.)

That said, is the worry of sinning (and earthly punishment) the only thing that prevents you from killing to your benefit?
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Bitt Faulk