The Crime That Bob Committed - Essay Example

It is not clear whether Bob was mentally sound, but in law, he did not have the legal authority or reason to act in the way he did. Bob's action can be considered to be well thought before committing the crime because he carried a pistol with him to the hospital to see his father.   A loaded pistol by any definition is a lethal weapon and the action of carrying it to the hospital, a place that does not present any reasonable threat to his life or that of his father is an indication of his intention to kill.  In this case, his action amounts to murder and he is guilty of first-degree murder if it is not proved that, his terminally ill father requested Bob to shoot and kill him.

However, if his father requested Bob to shoot him in the head and kill him, Bob’s action amounts to the crime of assisting self-murder and hence he would answer to the charges of manslaughter. According to Jordan, Van Dyke and Malone (2008,) helping someone to commit suicide is a criminal offense in the United States. In this case, if it is established that Bob assisted his father to commit suicide by obeying his request to shoot him, he is guilty of second-degree murder.  The laws governing assisted self-suicide to vary in different states across the US, and Oregon is the only jurisdiction in the world that allows doctors to assist terminally ill patients to commit self-suicide (Siegel, 2008).