Kate Bowman

Doubt they would have spared him. Even if she gave the name, he'd be executed as an example for why to not oppose them.

Yeah I doubt Balak would have spared him and she knew it. Don't forget that Batarians aer well known for terrorist acts as wel as taking other species as slaves. They only really care about themselves no on eelse. Even hten that's debatable given the yeven enslave themselves sometimes

Because he needed hostages in order to have a bargaining chip with Shep when they showed up.

Maybe Balak felt she'd be the moer inclined to talk. That's really the only reason I can think of. Plus with him he was security s omaybe Balak felt he'd be moer of a threat to his plan so disposed of him first.

I always saw him not killing her is because she’d be more valuable a slave than her brother was.

Could be that too. It didn’t just serve a message to the group, but he knew those feelings would torture and punish Kate far more than ending her life would since then she wouldn’t experience anything.

Correct. She never learns our name until the very end when we save her.

A fair point but we also do not know if it would be effective.  People do give off tells when they are lying and we have no idea if Balak would just accept her word at face value if she were to try and spin a tale.  

I would consider that a pretty reasonable thought or at least something along the lines of 'if I tell him a lie and make up a story and he does not believe me my brother is dead anyways.' sort of deal.  

Now hang on a second I am not saying what I'd do.   I'd probably be doing a lot of grovelling and maybe even try and spin a story if my wife was threatened trust me.  However the question is not neccessarily what would I do but more along the lines of what Kate Bowman did and why she did it...at least in my mind.  Or perhaps to stretch it what is reasonable for her to do.  And well keeping in mind she does not actually have any information to tell Balak, the stress of the situation, the likeliehood Balak wouldn't believe her even if she did tell him the truth or would kill the brother anyways because terrorist all of this suggests that her actions are reasonable.  Not especially moral or heartwarming perhaps and to be clear I think it could have been just as likely that she would have spun a story or groveled but given the evidence I do find the events as portrayed to not be an unjustified scenario.  

She could give any name, but no matter what she would have said, her brother would have been killed regardless just to make an example. Balak seemed bent on doing something since he already made up his mind. When confronting him, you can hear the hatred in his voice.