Customs of the spaceways... or... arr, we killed him to conserve oxygen!

[ffutures]

A friend posted something friendlocked that included a reference to one of the more fascinating series of trials of the 19th century, which established that an ancient "custom of the sea" did not justify murder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Dudley_and_Stephens

Now I think that when I eventually get to the space travel section there really needs to be a section on "Customs of the spaceways," possibly including the meat of this case, and maybe, in Churchill's words, "rum, sodomy, and the lash." In a clean-cut American influenced sort of way, of course...

Any suggestions?

Comments

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

Well, I had to read through the wikipedia entry to see what it was about and I have to say, that decision would also apply to space travel. You cannot space someone just because they stowed away on your ship and ruined the orbital mechanics for your trip. (re: The Cold Equations) Nor is it permissible to kill someone just to extend your air supply.

As for customs, for novice travelers there is the "Midpoint Flip" ceremony, similar to the one done for crossing the Equator or the International Dateline. At the midpoint flip in the trip to another world (not satellite like the Moon), first time crewmen are put through a hazing ritual that usually results in embarrassment, laughter, and at least one or more them vomiting from the concoctions there were forced to drink. Usually the captain of the ship is complicit in this ritual if not present.

For paying passengers, the steward puts on a little party, some drinks and party games. You don't screw with paying passengers.

Another ritual, lost to time, is when a landing party is formed, the most junior crew member must wear a red tshirt under their gear.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Midpoint flip is a good idea, red shirts a little silly in a 1930s SF context.

Agree entirely about Cold Equations and most of the other stories along those lines (the Clarke thing about the freighter running low on air, for example); voluntary suicide for the greater good is one thing, cold-hearted murder is quite another.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

The legal point actually gets a little more complicated in such circumstances though. In Dudley and Stephens poor Richard Parker wasn't actively consuming resources that would otherwise have gone to his boat-mates; rather, he comprised such a resource himself. Even where food or water is available, one can always forebear from consuming it. But air is a different matter; you can't all agree to hold your breath for a month...

This issue was confronted a few years ago by the English Court of Appeal in Re A (Children), the 'Mary and Jodie' conjoined twin case. Having to decide whether surgeons could lawfully carry out an operation that would kill one twin in order to save the other, the Court viewed the case as one in effect of self-defence on behalf of the stronger twin, whose bodily resources were inexorably being consumed by the weaker one. However, this is still distinct from a 'three men in an escape pod' case, as one of the twins ('Mary') had no prospect of long-term survival at all, so the choice was not arbitrary.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - since its' your post that put this in mind, any other suggestions you care to make will be very gratefully received.

Any intersting piracy cases come your way? There are pirates in the Weinbaum universe...

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

I figured as much for the Red Shirt, it was just a something that popped into my head.

Since these stories were written during Prohibition, one can make a case for most ships being "wet". At least one or more "vacuum stills" in use on board a ship. The crew probably gets a liquor ration as well.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

There's nothing to say either way about booze - there's certainly some drug addiction around, one of the villains is a "hexylamine" addict, I'm assuming that they're talking about some derivative since actual Hexylamine is very nasty and (as far as I know) not a narcotic - it's certainly not a controlled substance, we buy it from ordinary lab suppliers without any special paperwork.