Text | Sun Yuliang
Hearing again about the murder of a suspected mentally ill person made me fall into deep thought. According to Tianmu News, on the evening of January 16, 2023, a psychiatrist at Changyuan Psychiatric Hospital in Xinxiang, Henan Province, was stabbed several times by a patient with medicine and is currently in emergency treatment. The murderer, who was an inpatient in this hospital and had a history of mental illness for many years, came to get medicine this time, but unexpectedly, a sudden injury occurred.
Will I be legally responsible if I am injured by a mentally ill person? The answer is no. According to article 18 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, "a mentally ill person who causes harmful results when he is unable to identify or control his own behavior shall not bear criminal responsibility if it is identified and confirmed by legal procedures." I don't understand such a legal text. Take the doctor who was injured at the Changyuan City Psychiatric Hospital, he was stabbed several times, if the assailant was indeed a psychotic episode after judicial evaluation, who should he reason with? Can you only consider yourself unlucky?
When this legal provision was formulated, it only looked at the problem from the perspective of a mentally ill person, feeling that he was a patient and his behavior was not controlled, so he could not be convicted, and at most ordered his family or guardian to strictly supervise and treat him. But what about the victims? If the victim is killed by a mentally ill person, or if he is permanently disabled, ruining his life, who is responsible for the harm he suffered? Was the legal text not well thought out and not thinking about the victims? It would be unfair to them to comment on the harm they have received just by the word "unlucky".
Because mental patients are not legally responsible for causing harm to others, this loophole makes some people think crookedly, normal people hurt people, and they have also applied for a psychiatric evaluation, fantasizing about opening a false certificate through "relationships" or bribery, artificially "building" criminal suspects into mental patients, and achieving the consequences of lightness. Some people, even take precautions, open a psychiatric certificate through the "relationship" in advance, and use this paper certificate as a "talisman" to deter others.
Some people believe that mentally ill people cannot become a "gold medal for avoiding death", they also seriously endanger society, and they endanger society without fear, so as long as they hurt people, they should be treated the same as normal people. If you feel that the mentally ill person is "wronged", then blame his family or guardian, who let them not take good care of their guardians? If the fine or compensation is processed, then the money should be paid by the guardian, and once the heavy penalty is given, the guardian will learn the lesson and know how to take good care of the mentally ill. If a big mistake is made and causes serious consequences to others that are difficult to reverse, then the mentally ill person should also bear his share of responsibility, and it is very unfair to the harmful person to be exonerated on the grounds of the mentally ill.
I am also full of sympathy for the mentally ill. I have deep sympathy for anyone suffering from illness. But sympathy should not replace the law, just as I sympathize with Zhang Koukou for avenging his mother, and the law still sentences him to death. I always feel that the current law is too tolerant of the mentally ill, and should this legal provision be charged to the legal institution to change it and listen to what the public opinion says. There are too many incidents of mental illness in society, and some victims have paid the price of their lives, and how to prevent similar vicious incidents from happening again should arouse a great discussion among the whole people and work out a set of appropriate methods.
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