The responses here seemed to be very similar.  It seems that most people of both sides would check to make sure the person is okay and not in any immediate danger, but not take forceful action.  This seems reasonable to me personally, but I understand that other people may think differently.  This is a difficult situation because most people would care for someone in danger, but the person drinking also "has the right" to drink as they please.

What do you all think about a person having the "personal freedom" to drink as they please?

It's largely a cultural thing. I know that in my home country of New Zealand, getting absolutely trashed is seen by most people as perfectly acceptable, and it's only when someone start's throwing up/stumbling over that we need to start taking care of them. But different people have different views on alcohol and what is/isn't okay.

I believe a person should be free to drink as much as they want as long as they don't harm other people in the process. "Harming other people" is a relative thing and the Americans and French seem to have a different view on it. 

I though it was interesting that none of the French said they would make their friend stop drinking, they only said they would suggest that. Whereas in the American side about 8 people said they would make their friends stop.

C'est vrai Clarissa qu'aucun des francais ne lui interdis ensuite de boire d'avantage. L'alcool chez nous est-il devenu une consommation qui se banaliserait, que nous cotoyons assez souvent?
Il en ressort effectivement un coté peut etre "egoiste" de notre part, se résumant au fait de laisser continuer, de faire juste attention à lui en le regardant de temps en temps, mais on ne prend clairement pas position et ne l'obligeons pas à arrêter.

Je suis d'accord avec Brice ! Le fait de boire trop est plutôt une chose courante, on en a pas vraiment peur, ni de ses effets ni de ses conséquences. Du coup, on aura tendance à laisser boire des personnes déjà saouls sans trop de remords. Est ce une bonne ou une mauvaise chose, je ne sais pas trop. Les réactions des américains m'ont surpris : si quelqu'un me forçait à arrêter, je serais surêment un peu énervée.

For me at least, if I saw a friend drinking too much, I wouldn't want her to make a fool of herself and be embarrassed about her drunken actions later.

Additionally, in America, we often hear stories about people getting sick from alcohol poisoning or drowning in pools of their own vomit. We have seminars about these kinds of things when we first start college. I think such things scare us into intervening. Are there such public service announcements and warnings in France? If so, do people take them seriously?

The fact that most Americans responded that they would make their friends stop drinking may also be related to the fact that that friends was probably underage. I believe most of the alcohol experiences most students in our class had was this “illegal” drinking. I feel like in France your age does not matter as much in terms of drinking. Is that correct? Also, drinking seems to be less of a taboo than it is here in the US, where being drunk usually leads to embarrassment, as Tayo pointed out. 

I agree with mostly everything that has been said. To address what Clarissa said, I don't think it's because the friend was probably underage. I and I think most of my friends would also stop each other from having more, even though we're all of age. I do think that it has more to do with drinking being less acceptable and leading to embarrasment in the U.S.

Is drinking in the US a taboo? Maybe I've just been around/seen college settings for a while, but I find it more strange to meet someone (underage or not) that doesn't drink that it is to find one that does.

I do agree with the embarassment thing, because for a while it's funny, but it can go too far pretty quickly.

Je crois qu'en France, nous sommes surtout sensibilisés à l'alcool au volant (d'où un grand nombre de réponse précisant que l'on empêcherai la personne de conduire) plutôt qu'à la simple sur-consommation d'alcool. Est ce que c'est également le cas aux Etats-Unis?

@Tayo, pour répondre à ta question, je pense que comme Laurence l'explique, nous sommes surtout sensibilisés au sujet de l'alcool au volant plus qu'aux dangers de l'alcool tout court. Il y a des pubs de temps en temps à la télé (surtout autour des vacances d'été) pour sensibiliser les jeunes à ce problème. Mais autour de moi, ces pubs ne sont jamais vraiment prises au sérieux car elles emblent toujours montrer des extrêmes dans lesquels on ne se reconnait pas vraiment.

@Clarissa, c'est vrai que boire de l'alcool n'est pas un taboo en France. Lorsque j'avais 10 ans, mon père me laissait essayer de boire du vin dans son verre sans problème bien que cela ne plaise pas beaucoup à ma mère! Lorsque j'étais aux Etats-Unis j'avais été très surprise par les "liquor stores" , en France on achète de l'alcool dans les grandes surfaces. 

@Laurence, here in the U.S., we are constantly warned about the dangers of drinking and driving.  However, this is typically connected with the dangers of drinking.  The approach to the problem of drinking and driving is to only focus on the problem of drinking, not the combined dangers of drinking and driving.  However, I am from the South of the U.S., where the general population is typically much more conservative than the rest of the United States.  As a child in school, we were warned of the "huge dangers" that drinking can pose, even if a person only drinks a little.  

In answer to your question though, I think that the people (wrongly) focus on the problems of simply drinking, not drinking and driving.

I think for me personally, the reason why I wouldn't have a problem stopping someone from drinking more is because the good you do in having them stop is worth them being mad at you. I don't think any friends have said to me the next day (assuming they'd even remember being cut off from the bottle) that they were still mad that I didn't let them drink to the point of getting sick.