I was watching TV earlier flipping through the channels and came across the movie, “Gladiator.” Although the gladiators in the Roman Empire era were generally prisoners of wars, slaves, or forced participants in the combat for entertainment, there were some voluntary participants in the action as well. Therefore, I was pondering the fact (a bit cynical, I know) that this might, perhaps, develop in a free society.
So, would it be within the confines of a free society to allow voluntary human combat battles like the ones in the Colosseum in Rome? What about enlisting convicted murderers in this type of service? I realize that this in a bit unusual, but what would be wrong with two willing and voluntary participants engaging in battles to the death?
Maybe. Most libertarians claim that punishment has to be proportionate to the crime, though I suppose it would make the legal system more profitable if they could generate revenue from criminals.
Any business (since that’s what we’re talking about here) that wanted to do that would probably have a helluva lot of liability issues to deal with.
Nothing at all, but there would have to be some very substantial evidence that all participants were willing. So, again, liability. With our modern propensity to sue, it would only get worse in voluntary death scenarios.
There’s been discussion of this very activity as a way to bring revenue to libertarian seasteading outposts. JS-S makes a great point above, though, about how risky this could be.
Setting aside the question of whether this would be permissible, any culture that glorifies combat, physical force, barbarism, militancy, etc. is not going to be libertarian for very long.
See the Herbert Spencer quote on professional sports here.