The Meaning of Pity and Mercy...what is the RIGHT thing to do?

[Lush]

Kuruharan, sweets, I'm not wriggling out of anything. You asked me a question, an unfair question, since such forms of pure evil as Orcs do not exist here on earth (If you had asked me if I could kill a sleeping human being, or a Gollum, I would say NO, without hesitation, and without becoming confused over the nature of the Orcs, and how to enterpret Tolkien's descriptions of them, etc.) and I answered it to the best of my ability, using a real-life view on the situation. In real life, of course there are no Orcs, and maybe I was being presumptuous.
I just don't think I am capable of killing someone in their sleep. Is an Orc really a "someone"? I don't know. But I sure as hell know that Gollum is. Tolkien's portait of him is complete enough for me to be able to make such serious conclusions. And when I answered Jessica Jade's original question, it was Gollum that I was referring to. And it's Gollum that we're discussing here in general. Gollum and mercy.
I believe that mercy is one of the greatest things a human can show, and if you don't agree with that, you can just post that, and save me and yourself the trouble of confusing ourselves with Orcs, and what they're all about.