I almost do not want to ask this question, but....
If one of Terri's family somehow got a gun into her room and shot her (Please, I am NOT saying they should do this nor am I advocating it..I am only asking a philosophical question here), would they be charged with murder?
If so, why?
I'm not a lawyer, but yes, I would imagine so. Killing someone with malicious forethought counts as 1st degree murder. Are they really doing anything worse than what is being done right now? no I would say it would actually be a thousand times easier for her to end it in a second.
I'm betting yes. Not sure how the Florida statutes define murder, so I'll just go with the generic Webster's dictionary definion, which is:
"The unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice."
Your scenario would be murder because it would be an unlawful killing, and most likely would be premeditated.
Our founding fathers logic can be found in your post....Thanks!
That's an old law school hypothetical. If I push someone out the 10th storey window and you shoot them as they hurtle past the 5th storey, you're guilty of murder since you shortened the natural span of their life (which was another couple of seconds).