Homicide and the “Born Alive” Requirement

Homicide and the “Born Alive” Requirement
Jack Kevorkian’s saying “dying is not a crime” is a statement that he used to defend his position as a doctor who killed more than a hundred and thirty patients through euthanasia. Kevorkian’s actions arise to the level of homicide, considering how he conducted his mercy killings. He used carbon monoxide as a toxicant to kill his patients (Donaldson, 2011). The doctor also used poisonous drugs against the patients. Although euthanasia is legal in America, the circumstances under which the doctor killed his patients qualify the killings as homicide. The doctor killed an abnormally high number of patients, showing that he did not follow the right procedures (Donaldson, 2011). The doctor may have applied euthanasia in his own discretion and without the consent of the sick or the family members of the patients. He killed some of his patients when he felt that they needed to die because of the terminal diseases they were suffering. Under such circumstances, Kevorkian’s actions of applying euthanasia on his patients amount to negligent homicide which is illegal (Donaldson, 2011). Considering the careless ways in which he executed euthanasia on his patients, the doctor received a conviction with homicide (1999) for a period of ten to twenty five years.
The criminal case of State v. Lamy, 969 A.2d 451 (N.H. 2009) shows how an individual can commit negligent homicide. In one of the cases for which the New Hampshire court convicted Lamy, he caused an accident that killed a taxi driver. Lamy drove while he was under toxins. The court sentenced him for committing homicide because his actions amounted to negligence. One of the ethical require under the “born alive” requirement is the determination of the viability of a patient’s life before death. As long as the circumstances show that the patient was alive before the doctor applied euthanasia on him or her, the death is illegal (Gardner and Anderson, 2012). There is the ethical question of the source of life. Since God is the giver of life, He is the only being that should take life. Considering the ethical question, Kevorkian overstepped his mandate by killing 130 patients through euthanasia.

References
Donaldson, S.J. (June 3, 2011). “Jack Kevorkian Dies, Leaves Controversial Legacy, No
Successor,” ABC News. Retrieved on August 9, 2014 from http://abcnews.go.com/Health/jack-kevorkian-godfather-die-movement-leaves-controversial-legacy/story?id=13752603
Gardner, T.J., & Anderson, T.M. (2012). “Homicide” Chapter ten. Criminal Law (12th ed).
Cengage Learning.