KILLING: a classification

I produced this because I've never run across any such chart in 30 medical forensic professional years. The classifications can vary somewhat depending on country and/or legal jurisdiction within a country. [more on homicide] And laws and administrative orders surely change from time to time. Terms may have differences in meaning depending on whether the particular case situation is primarily an administrative determination by an insurance company, coroner/medical examiner, or a civil legal action, or a criminal legal action. This classification outline is offered to illustrate some basic definitions and to show that there are quite a variety of legal and illegal killings (whether as yet conventionally recognized or not). Many of the below can be further modified with such terms as depraved heart/depraved mind, recklessness, aggravated, criminal, grave or wanton, etc. This web site uses this definition: To kill= to deprive a living thing of life.

  1. SELF KILLING
    bulletordinary, conventional suicide [suicide= voluntary and intentional act of killing oneself, especially if the decedent is of sound mind and at an age of reason]
    1. obvious or straightforward suicide
      bulleta lone suicide
      bulleta sudden suicide triggered by finding a suicide
    2. hidden, masked, or disguised suicide
      bulletdeliberately faked or disguised as an accident, homicide, or natural death
      bulletinadvertently masked or non-obvious as a suicide
    bulletself-killing while mentally ill or insane
    bulletsuicide by cop (or security officer, or soldier, or some other official or citizen)
    bulletmurder-suicide
    1. in a fit of hopelessness and despair
    2. deliberately calculated: ordinary cases; the suicidal homicides of the Palestinians popularized in 2001-2002.
    bulletMunchausen syndrome resulting in one's own death
    bulletself-destructive or very high-risk habits (example: binge drinking and/or chronic alcoholism), behaviors (example: extreme snow skiers, rock climbers, mountain climbers [strangely, American media society treats these deaths...they died attempting to do an extremely challenging thing because that is what they loved to do...as if the deaths of heroes rather than the deaths of fools or idiots]), or addictions (examples: potentially lethal drug addictions; gay or straight sex addiction that risks sex with known AIDS cases) leading to one's own death.
    bulletassisted suicide (as by Jack Kevorkian, M. D., the severely misguided pathologist now in jail).
    bulletgroup suicide under the influence of a leader
  2. LAWFUL or LEGAL KILLING (excusable/justifiable homicide) of another or killing while insane or mentally ill
    bulletexecution by death row "capital punishment"...a 12% error rate
    bulletabortion
    1. conventionally early
    2. "partial birth" or late term (illegal 2003 overturned to legal in 2004)
    3. birth control medications or devices that kill the conceptus
    bulletlaw enforcement, unavoidable or necessary homicide
    bulletin self-defense, unavoidable or necessary homicide
    bulletsuicide by cop (or other, see above)
    bulletkilling (by soldier or civilian) of the enemy (soldier or civilian victim) in a declared war
    bulletaccidental homicide/death: an unavoidable killing of another by a sober person responsibly going about his/her business
    bulleteuthanasia...in some countries
    bulletmedical situations
    1. Munchausen syndrome by proxy resulting in death of another
    2. the technician microscopically examines early growing in vitro fertilized embryos and discards (kills) those he/she thinks aren't "right"
    3. excessive and unneeded live embryos maintained from a fertility treatment harvest & are turned over to, and consumed in, a fetal tissue research program to get embryonic stem cells.
    4. frozen embryos that are destroyed because the owner no longer wants them & won't allow transfer for live use elsewhere
    5. DNR (do not resuscitate), by Living Will
    6. withhold greater than supportive treatment, by Living Will
    7. withdrawal of life support (in a comatose/unresponsive vs. responsive, by Living Will or Court order or legal action
    8. uncontested by family non-legalized withdrawal of life support (patient is comatose & terminal and without medical hope) under the care of patient's physician
    9. potential civil actions for "wrongful [not illegal] death" (death due to the negligence of another):
      bulletairliner crashes: emergency blood supply insufficient & people die
      bulletterminally thrombocytopenic patient fatally hemorrhaging during severe blood shortage and his/her doctor decides not to demand blood from blood bank & patient dies
      bulletman 40 minutes from hospital & bitten by poisonous snake & dies because hosp. out of antivenin
      bulletcirrhotic patient to ER by EMS, vomiting up blood severely; survives after 32 units of blood & FFP, which, with newly developed test, is subsequently found on a "look back" to have had one unit contaminated by HIV. Patient contracts and later dies of HIV.
  3. UNLAWFUL or ILLEGAL KILLING (criminal homicide) of another
    bulletMURDER: with express [actual intent to kill the intended victim or any other person in the lethal action] or implied [death results from intent to cause serious, but not fatal, injury; or by an act creating great risk for others] MALICE or intent to kill or do harm
    1. murder in the 1st degree
      bulletintent to kill: with deliberation and premeditation; or,
      bulletfelony-murder, during dangerous felonies (such as armed robbery); or,
      bulletmurder by poison, lying in wait, or torture
    2. murder in the 2nd degree
      bulletkilling with malice aforethought but without deliberation and premeditation
      bulletfelony-murder during felonies which are not inherently dangerous
    3. murder in the 3rd degree
      bulletkilling in the heat of passion (and all other kinds of murder...such as depraved heart or depraved mind [action reflecting a wanton or willful disregard of the likelihood that the natural tendency of the defendant's act is to cause death or great bodily harm] shall be in the 3rd degree)
    bulletMANSLAUGHTER: without express or implied malice or intent to kill or do harm
    1. Voluntary (intentional)
      bulletintentional killing, without malice, and under mitigating circumstances
      bulletrequires adequate provocation of the accused
      bulletmay include killing in the heat of passion, before defendant cooled off
    2. Involuntary...may be modified with terms like "aggravated"
      bulletunintentional killing; during
      bulletcommission of a dangerous, unlawful act; or
      bulletwhile doing a lawful act but with criminal negligence; or
      bulletas a result of failing to perform legal duty (which shows criminal negligence)
    bulletNegligent homicide or vehicular homicide
    bulletkilling while mentally ill (and can be any homicide category) and modified with such as "guilty but mentally ill" or "not guilty by reason of mental illness"
    bulletkilling while insane (and can be any homicide category): "guilty but insane" or "not guilty by reason of insanity"

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(posted 10 Feb. 2001; latest update 23 September 2005)

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