Ethical Dilemmas In Family Defense

The facts of the case are as stated a 64-year-old mother watched her late husband suffer from a vicious disease known as Huntington’s disease, a debilitating brain disorder. Her two adult sons also suffered from the same disease that her significant other did; they will surely die from the disease just as their father had. The mother brought a handgun into the nursing home where her sons were staying, kissed them good-bye, and then shot both of them in the head. She is now being charged with first-degree murder; in the state which she resides there is no such law that states that mercy killing is a viable defense in the eyes of the law. Ethical dilemmas are presented in criminal justice on a daily basis, nearly. In this case the sense of duty is to serve justice to the family and the community as a whole. In the criminal justice system, it is the actors of the court system and the police who protect the community from harm whether it be from themselves or from others. In the case of the mother who shot her two sons, ethically it is the duty of the court to protect the community from …show more content…
The defense attorney has a moral compelled to get his client the best deal possible. The court system and the actors of the court including the judge and prosecutor are morally obligated to prosecute the defendant to the fullest of their ability and get justice for those afflicted by the crime. The mother was faced with a difficult decision, she had watched her husband suffer from the same disease her sons have now endured. She had to decide whether or not to let them deteriorate and be in constant agonizing pain or to terminate their pain and suffering. The mother was morally obliged to care for and protect her two sons from harm; in the mother’s mind ending the men’s suffering was doing them a favor. She believed it best to shoot her sons thus ending their torment with an incurable