This ethic was articulated by Bessie Anderson Stanley in 1911 (in a quote often misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson): "To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
"[3] Dan Savage, in his syndicated sex-advice column, Savage Love has articulated a variation of the rule for relationships, which he calls the "campsite rule", stating that in any relationship, but particularly those with a large difference of age or experience between the partners, the older or more experienced partner has the responsibility to leave the younger or less experienced partner in at least as good a state (emotionally and physically) as before the relationship.
The "campsite rule" includes things like leaving the younger or less experienced partner with no STDs, no unwanted pregnancies, and not overburdening them with emotional and sexual baggage.
[5][6][7] Savage also created a companion rule, the "tea and sympathy rule" in reference to a line in the play, Tea and Sympathy, in which an older woman asks of a high-school-age boy, right before having sex with him: "Years from now, when you talk about this – and you will – be kind".
[9][10] Augustana College bioethicist Deke Gould invoked the "campground rule" in a 2021 article advocating "efforts to design future minds—whether these are full artificial, enhanced biological, or postbiological ones—should aim to produce minds that are not relevantly human‐like".