**OT**
I tried to explain that I don't feel sorry for this guy. Nor, am I any less compassionate about the loss his victims family have endured. My point is about resposibility. The mentally ill can no more be held responsible than the severely mentally retarded. To expect a mentally retarded person to overcome their handicap, get a higher education and become part of responsible tax paying society is unrealistic. I'm pretty sure, I would get few arguments there. Well, the mentally ill cannot be held responsible for their acts either. It is sad but true. This is a burden that society bears. It is a gruesome aspect of mental illness. To say a mentally ill person should be held responsible for their gruesome acts is anathema. I'm not saying the mentally ill should be allowed to wander the streets either (for that is cruel and also causes potential harm to innocent people and/or themselves).
It may also be the case that he was not insane and committed these murders in cold blood, in which case he could be held responsible.
His actions appeared, on first inspection, as those of a mentally ill person. If such was the case, he could not be "held responsible". Although he could be, rightfully, confined.
The proof of my argument can only be obtained if science can identify the cause of mental illness (be it an exogenous factor such as heavy metal contamination in the brain, or endogenous, such as an inherited mutant gene). If the cause can be removed, thus eliminating the effect, it will be apparent that the mentally ill person did not act wantonly, but rather, was under an uncontrollable influence (at least beyond his emediate control). |
