# Would you permanently enslave a friend to save them from death? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 17, 2009, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708 "2009-08-17T08:15:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cesario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Cesario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cesario)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/41 "2009-09-09T07:18:26Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > But the OP is talking about someone else’s free will, not yours. Golden rule. Free will is more important than life. If one must be prioritized over the other, I chose free will. Using this power the OP posits is a destruction of my friend in a way more complete and more certain than any death. Death is a great unknown, and some possibility, however slim, that my friend could continue to exist in any form in some afterlife as him/her self is infinitely better than the cold certainty that I’ve just destroyed my friend’s mind, personality, and will in the act of preserving his/her body as my personal automoton. Now, if we’re just talking about some fancy necromancy powers that let me resurect the body, leave the soul wherever it may be untouched, and get a mindless slave out of the bargain, yeah, I’d go with that, but as described in the OP, certainly not. My philosophy recognizes only one unforgivable sin, and this is it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/42 "2009-09-14T07:26:22Z")
I don’t understand this. Everybody seems to not be seeing the obvious. If the person is truly my slave, I can ORDER them to be exactly how they were. I can even order them to take no further orders from me if I’m afraid of abusing my power. Only by being the person they were before can they be totally obedient. So what in the world is unethical about that? Why would you rather your friend die when you have the ability not only to heal, but to make them perfectly normal? Oh, and this totally beats Allessin. We both live our normal life. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/43 "2009-09-14T08:30:05Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I don’t understand this. Everybody seems to not be seeing the obvious. If the person is truly my slave, I can ORDER them to be exactly how they were. I can even order them to take no further orders from me if I’m afraid of abusing my power. Only by being the person they were before can they be totally obedient. I think the idea is that you would be be a slave owner and not have magical powers. The person in question wouldn’t be able to fully function alone anymore and would need your direction. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/44 "2009-09-14T09:31:55Z")
What if this person said to you that they are willing be your slave in exchange for freedom from death at the moment? Would you seek the limits of your inner sick motherfucker? ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/45 "2009-09-14T19:06:39Z")
Whatever attracted me to this person in the first place would quickly be overshadowed by the fact that he had no choice but to adore me. Blech. I want a man who’ll tell me to go to hell when I need it, or dump me should he find someone he wants to be with more. And that includes my husband! Forget the friend. I wouldn’t want to do that to _myself_! ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/46 "2009-09-14T21:10:08Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > No. I am not ethically responsible for my friend’s death. But I would be ethically responsible for enslaving another human being. This is my response too. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/47 "2009-09-14T23:11:02Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > No. I am not ethically responsible for my friend’s death. But I would be ethically responsible for enslaving another human being. This is probably the best response I’ve seen, but would you feel guilty (to a lesser degree than enslaving them) about not saving them or would you not feel guilty at all? ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/48 "2009-09-15T04:36:49Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > But it’s not ‘‘so easy to do.’’ You would have to enslave them. In ‘‘saving’’ your friend you are condemning him to a lifetime of servitude. The OP didn’t stipulate that you had to take advantage of the friend’s obedience. If you don’t, there’s no servitude at all. > [@](#): > > There’s nothing easy about that–for me it would essentially be sacrificing the essence of my personhood in order to save the essence of his. Only the one who was dead would have lost the essence of his personhood, having transitioned from person to decaying meat. The other would at most have had to make a philosophical compromise to save someone’s life. > [@Nava](#): > > See, to me it would be sacrificing the essence of his personhood in order to preserve his body. The person wouldn’t be there any more, same as if he was dead only without a burial. If the person had the same intelligence, the same sense of humor, the same aspirations, they would be equivalent to a corpse? I’m baffled. > [@Cesario](#): > > Golden rule. Free will is more important than life. If one must be prioritized over the other, I chose free will. No one living has complete freedom, but without life there is no will. While we live we all operate under constraints. But I don’t think it’s better to die because someone limits my freedom, or even worse because someone has the _ability_ to take away my freedom. > [@](#): > > Using this power the OP posits is a destruction of my friend in a way more complete and more certain than any death. Death is a great unknown, and some possibility, however slim, that my friend could continue to exist in any form in some afterlife as him/her self is infinitely better than the cold certainty that I’ve just destroyed my friend’s mind, personality, and will in the act of preserving his/her body as my personal automoton. Where are people getting this stuff? Who said anything about destroying minds and personalities? You know what does that? Death. ---
**Author:** ![Cesario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Cesario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cesario)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/49 "2009-09-15T04:44:57Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > No one living has complete freedom, but without life there is no will. While we live we all operate under constraints. But I don’t think it’s better to die because someone limits my freedom, or even worse because someone has the _ability_ to take away my freedom. Plenty of people throughout history have chosen death over a lifetime of servitude, and they had more oportunity to escape their circumcstances than this hypothetical allows. > [@TWDuke](#): > > Where are people getting this stuff? Who said anything about destroying minds and personalities? The nature of the enslavement described in the OP reduces them to an automoton. If it doesn’t read (to me) like a simple matter of them losing the ability to refuse your orders but being otherwise unchanged. > [@TWDuke](#): > > You know what does that? Death. Death is the great _un_known. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/50 "2009-09-15T18:21:51Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > This is probably the best response I’ve seen, but would you feel guilty (to a lesser degree than enslaving them) about not saving them or would you not feel guilty at all? I’d feel sad that they died but no more guilty than I would as a survivor of anyone who couldn’t be saved through legitimate means. ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/51 "2009-09-15T20:28:39Z")
When I encounter these situations I usually go for the slavery route, since I can always change my mind and have them die at a later date. When the slaves start piling up I just do the Thunderdome thing until I’m back down to a manageable number. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708/52 "2009-09-15T20:34:44Z")
I’d just let them die. They’d loose freewill, and therefor their soul. All that’d emerge otherwise would be a loving zombie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-permanently-enslave-a-friend-to-save-them-from-death/506708.md?page=2)