Homicide criminal law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Homicide criminal law - Essay Example e criminally liable if his conduct was the factual cause of Tom’s death and the consequence of death would not have happened â€Å"but for† Sanjay’s conduct. If we apply the â€Å"but for† test to the current situation, arguably Tom would not have been in hospital with severe internal injuries if had not been for Sanjay’s actions, therefore under the â€Å"but for test†, it is more than likely that Sanjay’s conduct will have satisfied the requirement of factual cause of death. However, it is also evident from the facts that Tom subsequently died of a blood transfusion at the hospital as a result of receiving the wrong blood type, which the doctors failed to notice. As a result, Tom died and this begs the question as to whether Sanjay was in fact the legal cause of death or whether the failure to give Tom the correct blood type in the transfusion was in fact the cause of death. Under the legal causation test, it is not necessary for Sanjay’s conduct to be the sole cause of death however it must be the substantial cause and have made a significant contribution to Tom’s death3. Ultimately, this is determined according to the facts of each case, however case law has established that the original wound must still be operating and a substantial cause at the time of death4. With regard to the current scenario, the doctors failed to administer the correct blood type in the transfusion and therefore one could argue that it was their failure was the substantial cause of Tom’s death. However, UK courts have been reluctant to break the chain of causation in cases where medical negligence is involved. A prime example is the case of Smith,5 where the victim was stabbed by Smith but died due to medical negligence. Despite there being a 75% chance of recovery but for these events occurring, the courts still held that the chain of causation was not broken. Although a different approach was used in the case of Jordan6 where negligent medical treatment was