Yes, I am very much against declawing.
However, as always, there is the odd exception.
Thirteen years ago we obtained an orange male kitten from the Victoria SPCA. The first thing we had to do was give it a bath and take off 57 fleas. Following more medications to clean him up completely the kitten became a tiger and we named him Sparky. He would attack any moving foot or hand and not for play either. We had bloody ankles and lower arms without letup. We tried everything, toys, scratching pads and veterinarians, nothing changed his mind, he would attack ankles and hands whenever he could.
There was no choice, his claws had to come off.
He still has his fangs and with those he has caused very serious injury to my wife and also to myself. My wife could not walk for a week and I could not use my wrist for almost a month. But these attacks happened when Sparky was angry about one of our other cats we had to separate him from and so he attacked the next thing to him, us. Other than that he now is a happy, healthy and, Yes, gentle and much loved cat. The thought of killing him had never occured to us and never will.