PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - A Kenny
TI  - Anomalies of Section 2 of the Homicide Act 1957.
AID  - 10.1136/jme.12.1.24
DP  - 1986 Mar 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 24--27
VI  - 12
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/12/1/24.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/12/1/24.full
SO  - J Med Ethics1986 Mar 01; 12
AB  - Section 2 of the 1957 Homicide Act is indefensible: the concept of 'mental responsibility' is a hybrid which turns the psychiatrist witness either into a thirteenth juryman or a spare barrister. But reform does not lie along the lines suggested by the Butler Committee or the Criminal Law Revision Committee. The latter leaves the jury with insufficient guidance; the former returns to the bad eighteenth century policy of treating mental illness not as a factor in determining responsibility but as a status exempting from responsibility. The much criticised McNaughton rules provide a sounder basis for deciding where responsibility should be assigned in criminal cases.