badgenome said:
I'm not sure why you asked me about this since the very first paragraph says: The men in the pit have been given no real choice: refusing to fight is generally punished by death. I think I've been pretty clear about the fact that I believe coercion is unethical. On the other hand, it sounds like you'd be enthusiastic about the coercion aspect and maybe just not so cool about the whole knives thing. |
If you want to argue that, then one can argue that so long as there is no coersion, knife fights to the death are ok. I personally have greater concern about the knife fights than the coersion, because society is full of coersion that people don't die from. Also, it gets increasingly vague as to what is coersion and what isn't. Being forced to choose between a knife fight to the death, or a family member dying of starvation, is a form of coersion that can happen given certain economic conditions, and a society that has no value for human life.
