In 2008 the world as we knew it ended with a lawsuit: Mrs. Robertson from Kalamazoo, Michigan sued the state for granting her full property rights on her own life.

Her situation was tragic: She was a single parent of a ten-year-old boy who suffered a life-threatening disease and urgently needed expensive medical care. Unfortunately, she neither had enough money herself to pay for it, nor was her limited health insurance going to cover it. In her desperation she hit on the idea to prostitute herself to raise the money.

She quickly realized she would never make the necessary sum in due time this way.

Then one evening she was watching TV and saw a report about some of the darker areas of the Internet. She learned that there were some places on the net where perverts were meeting who got their rocks of on snuff. A bizarre idea formed in her mind. Wouldn't these guys pay a lot of money for the real thing? She realized that she was prepared to sacrifice her life to save her boy.

She surfed the net and when she had found one of the snuff sites she posted an offer: She would allow anyone who was interested to kill her--for $100.000.

She was serious about her offer, but most of the guys just seemed to play with her. One of them who called himself Slayer666 seemed more wholehearted. They exchanged several mails and in the end they were close to an agreement. He really wanted it and he was able to afford the price--but in the end he backed off: He was eager to kill her--but he was too afraid to take the risk of capital punishment for himself.

She was disgusted with the legal situation: She had the right to sell her car--why didn't she have the same legal right to sell her life? Why wasn't he allowed to buy her life and pay for it legally? She searched for a lawyer and found one who saw the chance of his life to get famous with this case.

The first court instance repelled her plea and a few small articles in the local press made a funny little story out of it. She fought the case and appealed. Now media interest increased and a court channel broadcasted the main negotiation. This time she didn't lose--the case was consigned to Federal Supreme Court.

The proclamation of sentence on this case became historical: The judges decided in favor of Mrs. Robertson. In accordance with constitution the Federal Supreme Court decided that the state was not allowed to restrict Mrs. Robertson's right to dispose freely of her life, including the right to sell her life to an other person. She was allowed to make a contract with the snuffer. The contract would be legal and there would be no consequences by criminal law for Slayer666. The whole deal was considered a matter of private business. Of course her son had the right to sue the snuffer for breach of contract if he wouldn't pay the declared price after she had carried out the terms.

Sadly Mrs. Robertson's victory was futile: It came too late for her son who died before she could make use of the court decision. Two weeks later she committed suicide--barely noticed by media.

The sensational sentence carried consequences within shortest time: The managers of a pay-TV channel were the first to make use of the new legal position. Only one week after the proclamation of the court decision they had raised a new game show: "Take the money or die!"

Candidates made a contract with the broadcasting company, accepting their possible death during the show. Five candidates competed in dangerous games, one died, three stayed alive without any reward, the winner received $1.000.000. The show became most popular in no time and was imitated by other channels within three week. Few months later market economy had ensured drastic changes in the ratio of lives and money: Now the winner's reward was down to $100.000. And there were four losers. They were rewarded with free funerals. There was never a lack of candidates though.

Next step in the development was an innovative idea of a credit bank: They demanded the life of the credit takers as mortgage. In case a debtor came in arrears with his refunds he became property of the bank. With this practice that was also confirmed legal by Federal Court, slavery became practically reinstalled.

During the first two years only some thousand slaves were put on the market and they were sold at very stiff prices. Then a new President conquered White House with a most popular program to lower taxes and fight crime at once: Criminal law became reformed radically: Death penalty became abolished. Prisons became abolished. Everything became very simple: Regardless what kind of criminal act a person committed, regardless whether they smoked a joint or committed homicide--the punishment was always the same now: The criminal lost the ownership on his own life and became property of the state. Then, within few days, he was sold as a slave by auction.

Now slavery became big business: Within two further years about 15.000.000 former citizens became degraded to the state of slaves. And most of them were cheap: Depending on their quality, the prices varied between some hundred dollars and the record of $5.000.000 that were paid for a famous model who had been caught with an illegal drug.

New founded companies made a business out of buying large numbers of slaves by auction, training them for special purposes, and reselling them to the final consumers. Slaves became brand-name products.

The most exclusive and famous (or notorious, according to the few remaining humanists) of the companies that trained and sold high quality slaves was a company called Jane's with the famous slogan: "Jane's: A perfect slave for a perfect lady". This company exclusively sold male slaves who were thoroughly selected and trained for a long time to meet all demands of the rich and pampered female customers who could afford this kind of luxury.

Of course there were other firms, specialized in selling female slaves for all imaginable and some unimaginable purposes.

Most of the slaves were bought to exploit them as workers or domestics, a smaller number had to serve as sex toys, and the most unlucky ones were bought to be used up as playthings for sadists.

For some years cruelties against slaves were an affair that happened behind closed doors and that was covered by hypocrisy. One used to argue like: "You just have to whip them regularly--they need to feel a severe hand. It's for their own best!" Or: "Yeah, I had to shoot this slave, she was crazy and aggressive and she was inciting the other slaves. I hated to do it, but what can you do?"

With time it became obvious that many or maybe even most people who owned slaves shared the same, dirty little secret: They enjoyed tormenting them, and many even liked to kill them. Apparently sadism was not such a rare trait, indeed it seemed quite common. With this fact sinking in, the last remaining shame regarding cruel pleasures with slaves vanished. This process was boosted by the fact that, as the years of the new order passed, people became more and more accustomed to the principle of slavery...it became normal no longer to regard slaves as human beings but just as objects of private property. Things for use.

Another unexpected realization was this: Contrary to former beliefs it became obvious that women were not the more kindhearted sex: If there was any difference at all in the cruelties they inflicted on their slaves it was a little more subtlety than men normally applied.

Owning a lot of high-class slaves had been a main status symbol of the rich for years--now it also became fashionable demonstrate one's wealth by killing a lot of them. Killing slaves for fun became an accepted form of amusement. It was not unusual that some dozen slaves lost their lives during a fashionable party.

Another thing that changed drastically was commercial entertainment: The shy beginnings with the game shows on TV became unpopular when the audience demanded more thrill and kill. Old-fashioned gladiator games were staged in huge arenas and broadcasted on TV. Many former strip clubs had changed their offer and were presenting snuff shows now. And on the Internet that meanwhile had become a high-speed virtual reality medium, the paying customers could join interactive snuff shows day and night, as long as their credit cards lasted.

That's how the world looked like in the 2040s...