It wasn't me, it was my brain!
So while eating dinner I'm reading this article in the paper today ('A mind of their own', SMH News Review)."Scientists have been surprised to find that adolescence is a time of rapid change for the brain. And the parts that make young people more likely to plan ahead and consider the consequences of their actions are among the last to develop properly, in the early 20s."
Ok, nice update about the forefront of medical research.
The very next paragraph:
"The research, which is based on new brain imaging techniques, is being used in the US to make cases against the death penalty for those who have committed murder as teenagers."
These two paragraphs irated me very much. I've never had any sort of law education (save for Medical Law which was about negligence etc), so the following words that I use may have some legal definition which is more precise to which I'm unaware of. So keep in mind that I'm speaking from a "common man" soapbox.
Medical research being used to excuse people who do wrong is just wrong. Some people (read: defense lawyers) might argue that their organic deficiency, as "legitimately and scientifically proven" by MRIs, means that there is a diminished responsibility to face the consequences of their actions. But there is an organic explanation for everything we do. One neuron fired off a bunch of neurotransmitters (GABA, acetycholine, dopamine, serotonin etc), which excited another and another, until a signal is sent off to various groups of muscles which contract in a co-ordinated fashion to carry out an action. This occurs whether this action be speaking, laughing, eating, running, or pulling a trigger and shooting someone. But the fact that there is an organic explanation for the action taking place does not justify its occurrence.
No matter how disadvantaged you might be in having a less-than-developed brain because you are an adolescent, it does not excuse your behaviour. Even a 2 year old knows the difference between right and wrong, and that is scientifically proven. No one put the gun in your hand and pulled the trigger for you. Sure there might have been neuronal impulses coming from your amygdala urging you to carry out impulse actions, but you are also borne with a frontal cortex which inhibits such drives. And more importantly, you are imparted with a soul and conscience. This is what differentiates humans from animals. And fundamentally that is what secular law is about -- an outline of rules delineating societal conscience -- what is morally acceptable and what is clearly not.
If we blamed the fact that "my brain made me do it", where would it end? There would be no person at fault in car crashes because my neurons were too slow to respond to your braking signal... oops sorry. I raped your daughter but that's because my limbic system was in overdrive. I started a holocaust because my frontal cortex is underdeveloped compared with age-matched controls. I couldn't help it!
Use medical research to help sick people get well. Not help guilty people escape jail time.
(I do apologise for my tone, I tried to remain impassive but clearly it didn't work =Þ)
posted by me. @ 8:01 PM
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