In a study, humans accounted for 43.2% of 1,355 reported deaths, which included direct killing and roadkills, while predation (including by larger birds of prey) accounted for 2.8%.

Pope John Paul II declared in 1995 that "the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral."

"The direct killing of the innocent is always a grave injustice."

Some argue that what is happening is a form of direct killing.

Yet a substantial ethical gulf separates direct killing from "allowing to die."

Wars may also result in the direct killing of species for food or profit by displaced people.

This invasion often leads to cell death either through direct killing by the virus or by self-destruction through apoptosis.

Most of the Japanese died out of starvation, banzai assaults or direct killing.

The murder of Lucian Yorne had been a clever crime; more than the direct killing which Joe Cardona supposed it to be.

More than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches.