~In Palworld they'd just shoot you
Fun (?) Pokemon ethical questions!
If a Pokemon kills someone, who's liable or responsible? The trainer or the Pokemon?
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If a Pokemon kills someone, who's liable or responsible? The trainer or the Pokemon?
- What if the trainer told the Pokemon to do it? What if the Pokemon didn't want to do it, but the trainer coerced them into it?
- Alternately, what if the trainer DIDN'T want the Pokemon to do it, but the Pokemon overpowered them and did it anyway?
- Some Pokemon are basically people while others are little more than animals, does that make a difference? Which Pokemon could be held accountable for murder? Who gets to decide which Pokemon are competent enough to be held accountable?
- In the real world if your pet kills someone it's usually put down. Would a Pokemon that killed someone be given the death penalty, would that be the same thing?
- How would you even hold a Pokemon accountable if they didn't want to be? They can shoot huge lasers and have built-in flamethrowers. If you took Mewtwo to court he'd just explode it and fly away.
- If a Pokemon is sealed into its ball as punishment, would that be considered solitary? Or are Pokeballs so comfortable that it'd be unnoticable as a punishment?
- If a Psychic Pokemon coerced a trainer into making their Pokemon kill someone, who's responsible? If a Psychic Pokemon mind-controlled their OWN trainer to tell them to kill someone, who's responsible? How would you even prove it?
- Would prejudice against Pokemon types color people's opinions about whether or not the Pokemon is responsible for the murder? "That Fairy type would never have stabbed that guy! Someone forced it to!" vs "That Dark type totally tore out his throat, it's in their nature"? The answer to this is yes, I'm just putting it here anyway.
- If you're hanging out in a graveyard and a Ghost Pokemon kills you, who's liable? How could you even punish a Ghost type? What if a murderer gets the death penalty and becomes a Ghost type and then murders someone again? What if becoming a Ghost just made them BETTER at murdering!
- If a wild Pokemon kills someone trying to catch it, is that self-defense? I feel like that'd fall under things like getting mauled by a puma or taunting a bear or something like that.
- If you have a person-like Pokemon like Mewtwo or Alacazam or Lucario or something like that and they kill a less sapient Pokemon like a Slowpoke or Magikarp, is that murder or animal cruelty?
- Would there be lawyers out there that specialized in representing Pokemon in court? Would there be lawyers that were Pokemon? Could a Pokemon go to law school?
- If a Doduo had one head that killed someone and one head that didn't want to kill someone, what do you do?
- What if one head killed someone but the other head tried to stop it? What if the other head ratted out the murdering head? What do you do with the body? Do they both go to jail?
- Could you punish one head of a Doduo if the other head didn't want to be involved, or are they still considered one being even if the two heads disagree?
- What if you gave one head of the Doduo the death penalty, could you do that? Could a Doduo survive with just one head? A Douno if you will. What if a Doduo got hit with a rock and one of the heads just died, could that happen?
- What if Doduos could regrow a head, like the dead head would fall off or get sucked back into the body and a new head would come up with a whole new personality and no memories of their old misdeeds?
- Could the new head be held responsible for things the old head did?
- oh man what if some pokemon eat shed dodrio heads
- What if a Dodrio's heads were fighting and two of the heads killed the other one? How much of the Dodrio is liable for murder? what if a dodrio was on the moon and one of the heads killed the other one with a rock would that be f'ed up or what
- If a Dodrio fights and kills one of its own heads, is it the trainer's fault for not managing the Dodrio better? What if Dodrios doing this was kind of normal and trainers were told to expect their Dodrios to kill and grow new heads with relative frequency?
- What if there was a service that offered the Join all of a Dodrio's minds into one to resolve this issue but it was regarded as weird quack medicine? What if there was a big fight between Pokemon Centers and Technicians and these weird alt medicine people who kept pushing Dodrio Joining and other weird treatments for Pokemon? "Don't Join your Dodrio, it's a terrible idea!" vs "Oh what, you want your Dodrio's heads to murder each other, is that it?"
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