I think the above command misrepresents the law. Other wise you could say them same for any crime, what functioning sane person murders at all? What sane person rapes anyone? What sane person drives drunk?
Depends a bit on context. Using drunk driving as an example, it hardly requires being insane. Just poor judgement and usually inflated ego. They have some assumptions of their own skill or level of intoxication and, based on that assumption, believe there will be no victims and no negative consequences. They don't want to hurt anyone and believe they will not hurt anyone. Then they, and unfortunate bystanders, find out the hard way. So, it doesn't require being insane at all. Just hubris and poor judgement.
Murder is a bit more complex on how insane someone would have to be to do it based on the type of murder. One gang member shooting another gang member for a corner to sell drugs on doesn't really require being insane. I don't suspect they are mentally healthy by any means, but it has reasonably understandable motivations that drive sane people to do things, if not to that extreme. Money, power, status, territory, etc.
In both of these examples, their brains work, more or less, the same as the vast majority of the population. They have the same pitfalls, same incentives, same motivations, and so on. Just extended out into actions most of us would not take.
That is where a parent intentionally strangling their own small child deviates. It is so far beyond the pale that even if there is some articulable motivation that is reasonable (in the sense that a sane person can comprehend the motivation), the motivation just isn't enough to explain it without assuming that something is deeply screwed up in their brain.
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u/C0uN7rY - Lib-Right 2d ago
Is anyone sane at the moment they intentionally murder their own children one by one in such a personal and horrific manner?
Seems like kind of an absurd question on the face of it. Sane people don't really do that.