Moral Principles and Medical Practice: The Basis of Medical JurisprudenceCoppens, Charles
Philosophy
Moral Principles and Medical Practice: The Basis of Medical Jurisprudence
Coppens, Charles
Medical ethics; Medical jurisprudence
But to understand this matter thoroughly there remains one more
important point to notice in the instructions of Judge Cox. It relates
to the question on whom rests the burden of proof regarding the
existence of insanity in the culprit. Is the prosecution bound to prove
that insanity did not influence the crime? Or is the defence to prove
that it did? And, in case neither party can prove its point to a
certainty, so that the jury remains in doubt as to the existence or the
influence of insanity in the crime, is the doubt to weigh in favor of
the culprit or against him? The judge, after a careful exposition of the
conflicting views on this subject by different courts, and after
weighing their respective claims, favors the opinion which holds that
"the sanity of the accused is just as much a part of the case of the
prosecution as the homicide itself, and just as much an element in the
crime of murder, the only difference being that, as the law presumes
every one to be sane, it is not necessary for the government to produce
affirmative proof of the sanity; but that, if the jury have a reasonable
doubt of the sanity, they are just as much bound to acquit as if they
entertain a reasonable doubt of the commission of the homicide by the
accused."
But the jury, enlightened by the lucid instructions of the court, were
convinced that Guiteau had not been led to commit the murder by an
insane delusion, but by his own reasoning and his own free will, and
that, therefore, he was to bear the consequences of his own deliberate
choice. Their verdict was "guilty," and the political crank was hanged.
II. We have now done with the study of mental or delusional insanity; it
remains for us to speak of moral insanity. Of late years, the legal and
medical professions have been much divided upon the question whether
there exists a disease which may properly be called moral, emotional, or
affective insanity, and which can justly be pleaded as an excuse from
legal responsibility.
Dr. Pritchard, and later on, Dr. Maudsley, with very many followers,
have maintained the existence of such a disease, and have claimed that,
even when it is not accompanied by any delusion, it ought, nevertheless,
to free a man from all punishment for crimes committed under its
influence. Moral insanity consists, they say, in a perversion of the
will, which by this disease is deprived of its liberty, so that the
morally insane man does what he knows to be wrong, but cannot help
doing it. And they claim that therefore he cannot be blamed nor punished
for the crime he thus commits, although he commits it knowingly and
willingly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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