Ok, before freaking out about the title, hear me out lol.

This is a question that is brought up frequently at the College Libertarians club meetings at my school. The scenario is as follows. A bunch of people, under their own power, by their own choice, and totally on their own accord, decide they want to participate in a "murder park," which is essentially a fight to the death similar to "The Hunger Games." They are willing to sign paperwork stating that they want to participate, and are totally ok knowing that they likely won't be the one person that survives. Should this be legal?

My position is, if they worked exactly the way they do in theory, why not? If everyone participating in the murder park agrees to it beforehand, I think they should be allowed to do it. Obviously people have the right to life, but if they want to waive that right, so be it. I support euthanasia and other forms of assisted suicide, so why not murder parks?

There are obviously a lot of issues that arise with it though, such as people being forced or pressure to participate in one, or corruption within the business running the murder park to favor a particular participant. If money is involved (such as the winner getting a cash prize) that could also be problematic, since poorer people may decide to participate just because the cash prize could help them and their family if they were able to win. And even if there is no ill will or foulplay, there is so much room for error, way too much when people's lives are literally on the line. Because of all the things that could potentially go wrong, in reality I would probably be opposed to them actually being allowed to exist. But in principle, if they could be executed exactly they way they are supposed to, I would be ok with them.

I'm fairly certain this will never ever happen, but it's an interesting topic to discuss. What are your thoughts?

I would be against it.

It's essentially killing for fun. I don't condone that thought because that can have serious consequences outside of these so called murder packs as well. Would you honestly feel safe living next to a guy that stabbed 3 people in the back with a knife and shot 2 point blank in the face with a shotgun, all for fun? I wouldn't. People will try and find ways to exploit it to commit murder for free and overall it will strike even more fear in our society.

It's incomparable to something like euthanasia. That's something that's utilized when someone is terminally ill, for example, to minimize their suffering. It's to give the person peace, to grant them their wish to die. It's also a medical procedure that causes the least amount of discomfort possible.

These games or murder packs are the polar opposites. It's not killing them to help someone pass away peacefully, it's to help yourself survive. And not necessarily in self defense either. Ethically there's a huge difference there that just doesn't belong in our society.

This discussion is basically an extreme version of what we would consider "freedom of choice" 

Morally it's not even about people dying it's the fact that someone is committing murder. I mean it also puts the people's sanity to question because it's one thing to admit you would kill someone to survive, but how does one mentally explain someone admitting they will likely die a horrible death but being fine with it., most would call that insanity.. Which means they're not thinking rationally which kinda makes it not freedom of choice... as they weren't in a fit mental state to fully understand the implications. 

Would I have a problem with it?
Not really. However I feel it'd be much better to just have a VR murder games if needs be.. In fact I can see it being an actual game at some point... Not to mention there's already a few things that throw around the idea... e.G planet doom in Ready player one.. There's also an anime that's basically the same concept but I can't recall its name. (basically a vr world with permadeath for the character, but doesn't cause bodily harm in the real world like SAO) 

I would be concerned that the killer that does win would be treated like a star though. Or at least rewarded for basically murder... 

This certainly sounds like one of those deep moral ethic evaluations, like the thing about diverting a train that will kill five people so it only kills one person. This isn't like that, but it's the same principle, how would such a thing be handled? You could assume that anyone signing up would have a death wish anyways, and this is just a more elaborate way of ending their lives, maybe venting their frustrations with the world along the way. On the other hand, the survivor might be negatively affected by the whole process. Maybe they wanted to die before, but after the power trip think they're above others, above the pre-defined laws of order. Or maybe they become extremely guilty over having been the only winner, they might think for long periods if they deserve this, and what it would have been like if that other person got what they did.

If you want to look at the more Metal Gear approach, this could certainly evolve into a survival of the fittest test, with someone training their whole life to prepare to fight any opponents, some which might not even be prepared for fighting anyways. Like Furret said, imagine living near the guy who trained themselves to kill other people for sport and got away with it? Imagine what happens when this is condoned too, when we have a government that allows a real life battle royale. I feel like the Geneva convention will be losing their minds and sending every available militia at whatever metropolitan country we're talking about here, but I guess now I'm stepping more into politics... funny how I hate when that happens.

Furret :
Sonicmcmuffin :
Mecha Leo :

I'm really enjoying reading the responses to this thread. You guys all have different views and different reasoning yet you all make really good points. It's interesting.

Let me pose another question to you then. Let's say these murder parks were limited to people that were terminally ill, but still physically fit enough to participate. So maybe someone has cancer or something that isn't currently affecting their physical performance or causing them any pain, but will kill them within a year or two. So instead of typical euthanasia once they start experiencing negative effects, or just waiting to die, more adventurous people that are going to die anyway are given the option to "compete" in a murder park instead. No prizes or glory or anything involved. Thoughts on that? In a way it's a completely different discussion based on different principles than the first, but I'm interested to see if that would be more or less ok with you three.

....tgags this a littke dark man...reminds me of the anime deadman wounderland where deathrow inmates kill oneanother for sport in a amusement park open to the public where the winner essentially gets "candy" and time shaved of there sentance...the show was twisted and the game was rigged at certain points but back to the topic at hand while it would be interesting to watch its a little to cruel and extreme to me killing for sport is never ok to me, I understand killing for food(like hunting wise), but for fun thats just wrong, but I guess a murder park could exist if you signed a waiver and didn't allow it to be seen publicly but if you want to see real live murders"snuff films" get you a web browser like onion torrent that allows you to full y access the "real" internet  unfiltered IE the dark web and watch away but legally speaking a fight to the death could be legal like a boxing match or MMA match just sign the waivers before the fight and boom instantly cleared of manslaughter or murder if you beat the guy to death or if death occurs 

Not only is it killing for fun, but people can easily be forced into it. Bullying and blackmail are perfect ways to make someone do something stupid, like sign up for one of these.

I think there really can be a thing as "too much freedom". This would be one such case. Even if the people participating may not be criminals at the time this may very well be the catalyst that set them off. Killing another human being is not something you get past very easily assuming you're in a normal mental state. So anyone who does participate in this and manages to make it out would probably warrant keeping a close eye on.

Secondly I think one needs to consider this on a broader scale as well. A lot of people would feel unsafe in a society where murder of other human beings for fun is allowed in any shape or form. I personally feel like it's distancing ourselves from civilized society and regressing back into the more animalistic state of the past. On that principle alone I would be against allowing it.