Legal Medicine and Criminal Law: Australia

Abstract

A person will not be held criminally responsible for his/her acts unless such acts are performed in a conscious and voluntary fashion and satisfy the elements which constitute the proscribed offense. This chapter reviews a number of such offenses or crimes, including assault, both common and aggravated; issues of murder, grievous bodily harm and homicide; manslaughter; abortion; infanticide; suicide; and euthanasia. It deals with issues of consent, causation, and legal responsibility.