..Would you be charged with Murder, Man-slaughter, or Animal Cruelty?
2006-10-01 01:22:01 · 27 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
Good Question....I'd love to know where the law stands on this one?
My guess is that if you can prove it was in self-defence, then I would say Man-slaughter? However the 'Alien' might be as equally, if not more intelligent than us, in which case the crime could be viewed as Murder, similar to unlawfully taking another persons life.
I wonder if there's a written law regarding the welfare and treatment of Alien lifeforms, should a U.F.O land in your back garden?
2006-10-01 01:31:38 · answer #1 · answered by Bont11 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Outer Space Treaty ratified by the United Nations in 1967 contains various clauses about what should happen if aliens land on our planet, and covers such topics as what "Take me to your leader" actually means - such as where you would take an alien who wanted to talk to someone in authority on this planet - people were unsure whether to use the Kremlin, the White House or 10 Downing Street. It was eventually decided that all contact with space aliens should be conducted through the United Nations Secretary-General, currently Kofi Annan, based in New York.
This little-known treaty permits individual citizens to shoot aliens in self-defence and not receive any punishment from Earth-based authorities, though clause 13 subsection 666 does allow for the extradition of any such offenders back to the alien home-world concerned for torture and experimentation, providing the said extraterrestrial's family, orbiting mothership, ambassador or alien warlord demands it, providing that they promise not to invade this planet in return and go in peace.
It was concluded that to sacrifice one such person to merciless aliens would make more sense then face death rays and a full-scale interstellar war. I'm afraid that George W Bush and Tony Blair would hand you over to the aliens without a second thought!
2006-10-01 02:23:33 · answer #2 · answered by Mental Mickey 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You won't be charged with anything, murder is defined as one human killing another, man-slaughter is accidental murder and aliens are not animals so you wouldn't get done for animal cruelty.
2006-10-01 01:36:46 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because homicide laws generally specify the killing of a human, no form of homicide would apply to the act (i.e., neither murder nor manslaughter). Crimes like animal cruelty typically depend quite a lot on circumstances, so your description does not lead to a clear answer (viz., if you found a badly injured and suffering being and shot it dead, that might not be cruelty, legally speaking); it is also not clear that these laws would necessarily apply to a previously uncategorized being.
2006-10-01 07:57:51 · answer #4 · answered by BoredBookworm 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The definition of murder in the UK is 'the unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being...'. This is a 17th Century Definition and a 'reasonable creature in being' has traditionally been interpreted to mean 'human being'. However, I can see the potential for an alien from another planet to be considered a reasonable creature in being and so shooting one could amount to murder.
I'm a bit concerned however, with your use of a capital letter for the word 'alien' which usually denotes an illegal immigrant rather than a creature from another planet. I hope this is just a typo and that you have no intentions of gunning down another human being!
2006-10-01 01:37:01 · answer #5 · answered by moonbeam 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You shoot one Alien, and before long the World is invaded by millions of 'his' species. Seriously though, this is a tough question, I don't think the hypothetical question has ever been addressed in Parliament, or a law passed by politicians regarding "Martians", actually that's got a ring to it...."Martians Law" Perhaps it should, because you never know...?
If you can prove your actions were in self-defence, then I doubt you'll be charged with murder. However, if it was later proven that the Alien was more intelligent than us Humans, then I guess you'll be in deep sh*t! Simply because the one you killed, was one of a kind, and could of been of great scientific significance to 'our world'.
2006-10-01 01:53:59 · answer #6 · answered by Simon J 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You'd probabaly be dragged back to their home planet and be charged with all three.
Or in fact "apefrogino", "frad-skdhf", and "picaaa minoslozz"...
That's alien for murder, man-slaughter and animal cruelty...
2006-10-01 01:31:32 · answer #7 · answered by SOPHSTER! 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Do you mean a member of an alien species, or an illegal alien?
If it was from another planet, you'd probably be given a medal, and if it was an illegal alien then by rights you should be done with murder, but knowing how the system works you'd also probably be given a medal.
Rawlyn.
2006-10-01 01:34:44 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
The Animal Rights people would bring all kinds of charges against you.
The ACLU would try to throw you in prison. They would destroy you, even if the Alien was attacking your family.
If the Alien was also a terrorist, the Democrat Party would put you in prison for years for taking away his civil liberties.
2006-10-01 01:31:13 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Cute question! I don't think you'll get an opportunity to find out as those characters act almost never alone. Others will zap you and/or rape you, if you're attractive. They're bisexual and like manly men and biglipped and large breasted women.
2006-10-01 01:26:50 · answer #10 · answered by roadscholar22 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋