Case and Comment: Tasmania v Martin (No 2): Voluntariness and causation for criminal offending associated with treatment of Parkinson's disease

In 2011, the former independent member of Tasmania?s Upper House and Mayor of Glenorchy, Terry Martin, was found guilty of a number of criminal acts. His defence claimed that his behaviour was caused by the prescribed medication he was taking. While this is by no means an isolated case in its general outline, the decision and a handful of criminal prosecutions in other jurisdictions, raise interesting legal and philosophical questions about how the law ought to respond to offences committed by persons who engage in compulsive behaviour that they claim have been induced by medication prescribed for a serious, degenerative disease ? in this case, Parkinson's disease.