The legal doctrine of responsibility in cases of insanity, connected with alleged criminal acts / by Forbes Winslow.

  • Winslow, Lyttleton Forbes, 1844-1913.
Date:
1858
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The legal doctrine of responsibility in cases of insanity, connected with alleged criminal acts / by Forbes Winslow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to draw nice distinctions between right and wrong—the power of correctly estimating the relation between a suggested line of action, and its penal consequences,—the ability to appreciate in a healthy manner the moral and legal principles laid down for the conduct of society, and the safety and protection of human life, are not to be confounded with an apparent lighting up of the intelligence so often witnessed in certain morbid conditions of the brain, disordering the operations of the mind. We are not justified in inferring, because the alleged lunatic ex- hibits more than the usual degree of cleverness, cunning, and sagacity, that therefore he is in a condition of intellect to weigh nicely and accurately (when impelled in an insane state of mind to commit an act of violence upon a fellow creature who had subjected him to a slight provocation) the questions, am I doing what is right? what is lawful? what is good? am I about to act in disobedience to human and Divine laws ? Dr. Ray has placed this question in a clear and forcible light. The first result, therefore, to which the doctrine leads, is, that no man can ever successfully plead insanity in defence of crime, because it can be said of no one, who would have occasion for such a defence, that he was unable in any case to distinguish right from wrong. To show the full merits of the question, however, it is necessary to examine more particularly how far this moral sentiment is affected by, and what relation it bears to, Insanity. By that partial possession of the reasoning powers, which has been spoken of as enjoyed by maniacs generally, is meant to be implied the undiminished power of the mind to contemplate some objects or ideas in their cus- tomary relations, among which are those pertaining to their right or wrong, their good or evil, tendency; and it must com- prise the whole of these relations, else the individual is not sane on these points. A person may regard his child with the feelings natural to the paternal bosom, at the very moment he believes himself commanded by a voice from heaven to sacrifice this child, in order to secure its eternal happiness, than which, of course, he could not accomplish a greater good. The conviction of a maniac's soundness of mind, on certain subjects, is based in