When I hear "theological and ethical theories," my mind immediately goes to something that has been fairly popular in zombie fiction, especially recently: Can zombies be "saved?"
What I mean is: are zombies irredeemable creatures that need to be wiped out, or are they sick people who need treatment and possibly a cure, if one exists? It pops up in quite a few stories. Romero's latest works come to mind, but he even asked the question back in the original Dawn of the Dead when he showed people keeping zombie family members locked up. And of course Walking Dead touched on the question as well (I won't elaborate here for the sake of spoilers).
But so far We're Alive has avoided the issue. There hasn't been any questions about the ethics of killing zombies on the show that I can think of even though evidence seems to point to the idea that the zombies may be technically living. (They can be killed by non-headshots. They can bleed out from having their limbs cut off. And they might even be able to starve.)
The question has popped up a little bit on the forums. I know some people chided Tanya for wanting to experiment on the zombies and claimed that it might be a slippery slope to a "mad scientist" mentality. But now I'm curious. What does everyone think? Can zombies be "saved?" Does whether or not they're technically living matter?