Why? Because I saw the first couple of minutes of Family Guy yestereve.
Now here’s the sitch. For purposes of today’s silliness, your situation is more akin to movie-Hulk’s than comic-Hulk. (I mention this because, if you’re living in the Marvel Universe, you have good reason to think that suicide won’t accomplish much.) A combination of genetic engineering, gamma ray radiation, and an attempt at heroic sacrifice have combined to give you the tendency to transform into a 12-foot-tall, nigh-invulnerable monster with apparently limitless strength fueled by rage. The transformation is triggered by anger and/or fear; you’ve got plenty of both in your life, on account of the military-industrial complex wanting to dissect you and weaponize your biology. You have little memory and no control of what your jade doppelganger does when the change comes. Lastly, there’s no silliness about the JD being an idiot savant who can control the path of every flying brick that results from knocking over a building; in other words, it’s virtually certain that your Hulk has killed people by accident during a rampage not to mention the soldiers, cops, and mercenaries who’ve bought the farm trying to corral you.
Do you think you have an obligation to kill yourself? Why or why not?
I think the current idea is that Banner has multiple personality syndrome, and that the various iterations of the Hulk are his various others. (Yeah, I know MPD probably doesn’t exist, but neither do radiation mutants.) Different gamma mutants have different sorts of alters. Let’s assume, for sake of this thread, that your alter is a roaring engine of rage who, when “summoned,” is hugely pissed at whoever you were mad at or frightened of before the change, and who is furthermore likely to get equally pissed at anyone who gets in the way of stomping that person to death.
What, no poll?! Don’t let the haters get you down Skaldster.
I don’t think he has an obligation, no. I can’t view any situation where a person would be obligated to kill themself. That just doesn’t strike me as, errr, just.
With that said, as Dr. Banner is well aware of the result of his transformations, I do think Dr. Banner has an obligation to get himself the hell away from the rest of civilized society. Aren’t there plenty of islands in the pacific that he could build a fancy base on. All labor and help could be provided by robots, and shit people would be free to visit him if they were so dangerously inclined.
If seclusion was not an option, I still don’t think he should be obligated to kill himself, although I would feel the police force obligated in bringing him down. It’s the same end result but a different way of going about it.
Suicide doesn’t seem necessary here. Banner in non-Hulk form has a more-or-less baseline physiology, right? If I had this condition, I hope that I would submit to chemical restraint until a more permanent treatment could be found. Sedation - perhaps light, perhaps very heavy - should suffice to prevent Hulking incidents.
If not - then, perhaps, suicide becomes a moral imperative. If there truly are no facilities capable of safely containing me, then I don’t see how I could justify continuing to live while knowing that I would freak out and cause the deaths of others.
But then, the reality is that I’m a coward. Which means that an attempt at suicide would likely provoke a Hulk incident, making suicide both impossible and profoundly dangerous to attempt. What I’d really have to do is hire someone to kill me - high-caliber sniper shot to the head, at a time I would leave to my killer’s discretion.
That’s another thread, of course, but I disagree. A parent’s obligtion to his or her family can oblige him or her to stay at a hated job necessary to support the group, for instance.
Real-world, I think someone in this condition would have an obligation to seek help–he’s clearly a threat to himself and others when he’s having his “episodes”. Real-world, The Authorities would also have an obligation to not take a human being (and presumably an American citizen) and cut him up to see what makes him tick, lock him away in a secret military research lab in Nevada, etc. Publicity would probably help–make sure the world knows about the tragic plight of brave, lonely scientist Dr. Bruce Banner, with lots of magazine covers and TV interviews, so he can’t be easily made to just conveniently “disappear”. (And contact the ACLU, Amnesty International, and other civil liberties groups.) It’s probable he would have already committed some crimes before seeking help, during his initial “episodes”, but he of all people would surely have an excellent case for a successful temporary insanity defense.
After that, he might need to be institutionalized (in someplace with really strong walls)–but this should be done in a way that’s humane, respectful of his dignity, and so on. Most of the time, he’s a perfectly sane, intelligent guy. I also thought of Mr. Excellent’s suggestion of some kind of sedation–it also occured to me, some kind of implant might be devised that would detect the warning signs of an oncoming “episode” (adrenaline levels, say, or maybe something in his brain waves) and automatically inject him with a nice dose of Happy Juice. That way, he could live a more-or-less normal life without being locked up or basically doped to the gills all the time–if anything, he could wind up being a model citizen.
And, him being a scientist, I’m sure Dr. Banner would be quite happy to help with a program of research–genuinely scientific and run with proper ethical safeguards in place–on his extraordinary condition.
They’ve got to sic Wolverine on him, he killed Hulk in his debut battle, but then Hulk regenerated so fast he basically didn’t die, was described as being like a super aggressive cancer cell style regeneration, if I recall correctly.
Failing that the only way you’d kill Hulk is to wipe out Bruce Banner and who’s to say the massive shock of dieing would trigger a huge “hulk out”?
There was an alternate universe miniseries, “Banner!”, in which this happened (plus, the military was also using him/the Hulk as a weapon). Banner tries to commit suicide at least once (and probably more failed attempts previously), but even though he wants to die, his survival instincts always trigger the transformation, so he’s failed most conventional ways of doing himself in.
There was the Azzarello/Corben Hulk mini series where at the end of an issue a desperate Banner finally decides to do “the good thing”, and puts the barrel of a gun inside his mouth. The issue ends with a bang.
Beginning of next issue, it’s not Banner anymore, it’s The Hulk and he spits out the bullet. In the time it takes for the bullet to come out of the barrel and explode Banner’s brain, he has transformed into the Hulk. Banner cant be killed.
I can’t believe a sniper bullet through Banner’s brainstem while he is asleep or otherwise unaware wouldn’t do the job. For that matter, a lightning bolt (or similar) applied to Banner should zorch him so quickly there is no time to transform. Of course, all of this operates against the principle that The Hulk is a money making property for Marvel Group.
