Interesting moral/ethical question.

[mjr]

I thought this might be the best fitting forum for this.

I saw this article this morning.

A man is arguing that his "life sentence" for murder ended when he died.

What do you think should happen in a case like that?

Here's the article:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...ees/ar-BBWqiZN

Do you think he has a point? I think one factor is that he had a DNR in place.

And wasn't the criteria of the sentence technically met? He argues so, in that he said that he was sentenced to live, instead of "life plus one day".

[Gravekeeper]

I think he should go back to prison. It's pretty obvious what the spirit of the law is on this matter. Nevermind the precedent it would set if anyone actually ruled you get out of a life sentence by dying. You know you'd get people trying to game it by committing "suicide" in some manner they could be easily resuscitated from if found fast enough. If the alternative is life in prison it could be seen as worth the gamble.

You're only getting out if you're legally declared dead and then its kind of a moot point.

On the other hand, violating his DNR is indeed a valid problem but that's basically a civil matter as far as US courts are concerned. He could sue but it's not going to get him out of prison.

[mjr]

Originally Posted by Gravekeeper

On the other hand, violating his DNR is indeed a valid problem but that's basically a civil matter as far as US courts are concerned. He could sue but it's not going to get him out of prison.

In this case, I wonder who he would sue. If the prison knew about the DNR, but the hospital didn't (because the prison didn't pass along the information), would he sue the prison?

The article doesn't say whether or not the hospital knew he had a DNR, unless you go by what the brother said.

Because if the hospital knew, but resuscitated him anyway, that's on the hospital. In which case he could sue them. Because I don't think the hospital would attempt resuscitation if the prison simply told them to if they knew about a DNR.

[Gravekeeper]

Originally Posted by mjr

In this case, I wonder who he would sue. If the prison knew about the DNR, but the hospital didn't (because the prison didn't pass along the information), would he sue the prison?

The article doesn't say whether or not the hospital knew he had a DNR, unless you go by what the brother said.

Because if the hospital knew, but resuscitated him anyway, that's on the hospital. In which case he could sue them. Because I don't think the hospital would attempt resuscitation if the prison simply told them to if they knew about a DNR.

It looks to be on the hospital seeing as they called his brother to ask what to do and his brother explicitly told them just to give him something for the pain and let him pass away. But it sounds like a lower court is handling the DNR issue at the moment.