Posted by
Mike on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 11:26:59 AM
While only God can judge a person's moral acts, society should never
use mental illness to excuse immoral acts. The mass murderer
typically only cares about himself with no regard for others.
People with severe mental illness typically do not commit violent
acts. If they do, they usually are not morally responible because
the act is not human in the sense of being a free act of the human
will. Society should view these types of incidents as accidents
of nature such as when lightning strikes someone or when a wild animal
attacks someone.
A mentally ill person who is attending a university generally has
ability to choose between alternative courses of action. Just
because a person is a loner and depressed does not take away this
freedom to act. At VT there were several warning signs that the
killer was thinking about killing people. However, in a free
society, thoughts are not enough to take someone off the street.
It is wrong to blame the university for the acts of one of its
students. They did respond to the situation by referring the
suspect to counseling. He was on antidepressant medication which
means he must have consulted a psychiatrist or other medical
professional. If there was an immediate danger at that time, the
doctor would have been obligated to notify the police. Since the
killer was not taken into custody as a lunatic before the incident, he
in all probability formed his intention to kill and chose to carry out
his wicked plan all by himself as a free act.