I had quite the debate with a friend about this and thought it would be interesting to see what fanpoppers thought.

I feel it's Buffy's job to fight demons but humans have their own way to deal with killers, so it isn't her place. But I also think my friend makes a good point.

My friend feels that since we have seen vampires on the show exhibit the same range of emotions a human does (love, hate, jealousy etc) that the only difference between a murdering human and a murdering vampire is biology. If Buffy killed an evil human she would feel guilt but she kills vampires every day without guilt. what makes the killer human different from the killer vampire?
She feels that we saw pre soul Spike as a much better 'person' than Warren so morally how does Buffy draw such a big distinction between killing them?

So do people think she's right and Buffy seeing such a big difference doesn't make sense, or agree with me that it makes sense for Buffy to view killing a human in a different light that killing a demon like a vampire? oh and if someone who agrees with me could phrase the point better than I have that would be cool because I just suck at debating :)

I think vampires who kill do so because it is in their nature. A human who kills is much worse, if anything Buffy should feel worse for killing a vampire like Drusilla or pre-chip Spike than a human like Warren

I'm not sure if I'd call Spike a good person...but the show's premise is that the Slayer takes care of the things outside of human law. Think of how much less Willow would have suffered in the long run if Warren had just gone to jail.

Buffy's realm is the supernatural. If she set herself up to punish humans that would send her down a whole other path that couldn't end well. She's not God. Kill one bad human and where does that end? At least vampires aren't helpless against her. Most humans don't stand a chance against her. It's the equivalent of a trained Marine snapping a child's neck. Regardless of whether or not that person is evil, an act like that has psychological repercussions. Or should. If she no longer differentiates between monsters and humans, then where's the line? She could do anything she wanted. She stands against the supernatural forces because normal humans aren't equipped to. That's her jurisdiction. Humans should deal with human killers, it's what their equipped to do. Buffy can't and shouldn't police the human race.

Killing humans is wrong no matter what, whether you deam it 'just' or not. Vampires are killers. All of them, without a soul, were primarily killers. Spike was basically the only exception. HE was the one thayt could love properly and feel really emotion: whether that was an effect of being an incredibly emotionally sensitive human or otherwise remains to be seen, but even he saw it as his natural place in the world to kill. His instinct. He faught against it, but even after he had a soul he still felt the instinct, it's just both before and after he saw something more worth it than the instinct Before it was just Buffy, after it was his conscience being tortured and Buffy. As a whole vampires cannot be compared properly to humans in this situation.

I agree and Buffy knew her rights with the whole slayer thing. Humans have their own system to deal with murders, where as Vampires don't they have Buffy.

Regardless of their emotions and other displays of humanity, the majority of BTVS vampires are soulless demons. Their demon drives them to harm and threaten humanity, which is why Buffy slays them. They're also a supernatural threat which needs a supernatural answer in the form of the Slayer.