Issue of Consent as a Defence of Deliberate Killing in English Law

Abstract

In this article, the issue of whether consent should provide a complete or a partial defence of deliberate killing will be challenged within the scope of English law. In order to answer this, the article first determines what makes consent of the victim powerless in current English law. Next, the following topics will be addressed. First, what consent means and what the legal and moral effects of it are. Second, the reasons behind the current law for not recognizing consent as a defence of deliberate killing. Finally, this paper discusses whether or not consent should serve as a defence of deliberate killing. Although it may be claimed that consent reduces the wrongfulness of the act, it will be argued that consent alone should never provide a defence for those who deliberately kill others, due to an objective moral reasoning, namely human dignity.