The problem with this is that this creates shifting goal posts. I am not saying there are never situations where this may be justified (although i think this depends mostly on your culture), it starts with actual starving children, then it becomes people expressing that will, until we are at the point that even the thought is dangerous and should end with death.

You can also shift this in a different spectrum. Now it's children, then it becomes living things and slowly this can drift to a point where smashing a mosquito results in absurd punishments. It doesn't happen fast or overnight or possibly even within a decade or century, but once the precedence has been set that it is ok to kill other people for whatever reason this will become normalized and therefore easier the next time.