Cannibalism

[TheRealJoeFish]

Duress is a legal excuse and I think it even applies to murder but I'm not certain. It has been a long time since I set foot in a classroom.

I don't think it applies to murder. From the Wikipedia Article on Duress:

"A variant of duress involves hostage taking, where a person is forced to commit a criminal act under the threat, say, that their family member or close associate will be immediately killed should they refuse. This has been raised in some cases of ransom where a person commits theft or embezzlement under orders from a kidnapper in order to secure their family member's life and freedom. However, duress is not a complete defense to all crimes. For example, the general rule, both at common law and today, is that duress is never a defense to murder; that is, one is never justified in killing another innocent person even if one's own life has been threatened, although this part may be questioned when multiple people are threatened with death if the defendant does not kill a single or fewer people than threatened."

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And, from that same article, a brief encapsulation of the debate:

"The extent to which this defense should be allowed, if at all, is a matter of public policy. A state may say that no threat should force a person to deliberately break the law, particularly if this breach will cause significant loss or damage to a third person. Alternatively, a state may take the view that even though people may have ordinary levels of courage, they may nevertheless be coerced into agreeing to break the law and this human weakness should have some recognition in the law."

I lean pretty heavily towards the second of those two policies, but reasonable minds may differ.