# Killing the wounded - examples? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 18, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-the-wounded-examples/681626 "2014-02-18T16:01:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-the-wounded-examples/681626/21 "2014-02-19T15:42:08Z")
Not the same thing, but shipwrecked sailors definitely drew lots for who to kill and eat when the time came - happened with some of the survivors of the Essex, I know. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-the-wounded-examples/681626/22 "2014-02-19T17:08:17Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > If you want to go back 200 years, there was [The Raft of the Medusa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_M%C3%A9duse_(1810)#The_raft) > > 150 people were shipwrecked on a raft. 12 days later only 15 of them were left alive. There were lots of drownings and suicides, but a whole bunch of folk were thrown overboard while still alive. Those who threw the other survivors overboard while they were still alive weren’t mercy killers. Kind of the opposite. “There’s only enough water for one of us, and since I’d rather not watch you die of thirst while I keep all the water for myself I’ll just kill you now.” ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-the-wounded-examples/681626/23 "2014-02-19T18:42:55Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Those who threw the other survivors overboard while they were still alive weren’t mercy killers. Kind of the opposite. “There’s only enough water for one of us, and since I’d rather not watch you die of thirst while I keep all the water for myself I’ll just kill you now.” Or, even more accurately, “There’s only enough water for one of us, and since I’d rather not die of thirst while you keep all the water, I’ll just kill you now while you’re not expecting it.” ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-the-wounded-examples/681626/24 "2014-02-19T21:59:08Z")
Did’nt we have a dope thread a couple of years ago, where two guys were in the desert without water, and one killed the other at his request. Declan ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-the-wounded-examples/681626/25 "2014-02-21T01:17:01Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > In 1900 when reconstruction options for that sort of injury were largely non-existant I could see an argument for mercy killing, or at least not stopping the soldier in question from killing himself. > > Today, with the possibility of a face transplant, not so much. Assuming the injured guy can be evacuated relatively quickly. A face transplant extensive enough to include the jaw has been done a grand total of one times, so I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for someone _that_ severely wounded. ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-the-wounded-examples/681626/26 "2014-02-21T02:18:01Z")
I’m not sure how many cases are actually documented, but there is anecdotal evidence that mercy killings did occur on the American frontier (and presumably elsewhere), especially among the earliest trappers and settlers when faced with imminent capture and torture by the natives. Commonly, on the plains and in the southwest where some tribes were notorious for their love of torture. Not quite the same, but my stepdad, a WW2 vet of the Pacific theater has stated that among the men in his unit there was a common determination not to be taken alive by the Japanese under any circumstances. He never elaborated on whether this was actually some kind of understanding among soldiers to shoot their buddy or themselves if necessary; I understood it to mean they would prefer to make some sort of last-ditch suicide charge or something rather than surrender - at any rate, the Japanese soldiers had a fearsome reputation for torture & abuse of POW’s and by the latter years of the war, Allied soldiers had come to feel death was preferable to surrender. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/killing-the-wounded-examples/681626.md?page=1)