DWI Murder charge

[Salty]

Should this mom be charged with murder

and should Dr. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan (Fort Hood massacure) be charged with an additional murder?

 

[Bob Alkire]

On the mom, I would say yes. But if Ga. allows abortions (which I think is legal in this country), I would say no. If it is legal to abort an unborn one should not be tried for murder if they kill one by driving drunk.
How can we on one hand say it is ok to do away with an unborn child or fetus but on the other hand it is murder? It is or it isn't.

I would say the same on the other, if a service person can have an abortion legally one can not murder what is legal to kill. Makes me mad.

 

[billwald]

Say the mother fell down a flight of stairs and the fall killed the unborn baby. Would the death be a homicide?

 

[tinytim]

Falling down stairs, and drunk driving are apples and oranges.

 

[matt wade]

Say the mother fell down a flight of stairs and the fall killed the unborn baby. Would the death be a homicide?

Depends on your definition of homicide. Strictly speaking, the definition is:

the killing of a human being by another human being

Of course, we need to know what killing is:

cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly

So, given that killing is something that we can reasonably define as intentional, then your hypothetical situation is not homicide.

If someone falls down a set of stairs and while they are falling, then tumble into someone else and that person dies as well, is it homicide? I don't think it is homicide and I don't think anyone would think it is anything but an unfortunate accident, the same as the baby in the womb dying.

 

[matt wade]

On the mom, I would say yes. But if Ga. allows abortions (which I think is legal in this country), I would say no. If it is legal to abort an unborn one should not be tried for murder if they kill one by driving drunk.
How can we on one hand say it is ok to do away with an unborn child or fetus but on the other hand it is murder? It is or it isn't.

I would say the same on the other, if a service person can have an abortion legally one can not murder what is legal to kill. Makes me mad.

The difference is that in one case (abortion) the mother has a choice on whether the child is killed or not and in the other case the mother does not. Of course, I don't like that the mother has a choice in the first place, but her choice does mean that your argument doesn't work. If the mother had already made the choice to abort the baby, then yes, I agree with you. In this situations, however, I've not heard that the mother had made that choice.

 

[Bob Alkire]

The difference is that in one case (abortion) the mother has a choice on whether the child is killed or not and in the other case the mother does not.

I don't like or care for abortion either. But I do not buy that our law will allow the mother to murder her unborn child but some one else can be charged with murder. I believe to be true to our abortion law, it is or it isn't but it can't go both ways. I have been wrong before, maybe you think I'm wrong now.

 

[billwald]

God told Moses that if two people are fighting and in the process a woman miscarries that it should be treated as a property crime and the person who struck her must pay money damages.

 

[Jerome]

The money damages are for causing a premature birth.
If death results, capital punishment is called for.

 

[matt wade]

God told Moses that if two people are fighting and in the process a woman miscarries that it should be treated as a property crime and the person who struck her must pay money damages.

Leave it to you, billwald, to totally misquote Scripture. I've read the passage in the Bible, have you? If you did, you would know that it clearly says that if no harm comes to the child (i.e., it is born without issue), then it is just a fine. If however, harm comes to the child or there is a miscarriage, the judgment is "give life for life".

This is just about on of the most dishonest things that I've read from you on this board (and that's saying a lot!).