Breadcrumbs Section. Click here to navigate to respective pages.
Chapter

Chapter
Sweden
DOI link for Sweden
Sweden book
Sweden
DOI link for Sweden
Sweden book
ABSTRACT
Homicide, understood as the intentional causing of death of a human being, has been criminalised in Swedish law as long as there has been a Criminal Code. Since Swedish law separates guilt in the forms of dolus and culpa, the distinction between murder / manslaughter and causing another's death is drawn accordingly to the prerequisites of what suffices as intentional. In Swedish law, brain death is accepted as a criterion for end of life. Swedish law has three degrees of reckless or negligent killing. In Sweden, abortion is freely available and the person who is pregnant decides, a priori, whether to terminate her pregnancy. Sweden takes a unique view on the relationship between insanity and criminal responsibility since the law does not contain a requirement that the actor has to have a sufficient mental capacity in order to be able to commit a crime.