Dutton, disappointed by his eight-year-old son's failure to do well in school, began systematically depriving the child of food during summer vacation. Although his son became seriously ill from malnutrition, Dutton failed to call a doctor. He believed that as a parent he had the sole right to determine whether the child was fed or received medical treatment. Eventually the child died. An autopsy disclosed that the child had suffered agonizingly as a result of the starvation, that a physician's aid would have alleviated the suffering, and that although the child would have died in a few months from malnutrition, the actual cause of death was an untreatable form of cancer. The father was prosecuted for murder, defined in the jurisdiction as "unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought." The father should be
acquitted, because of the defendant's good faith belief concerning parental rights in supervising children.  acquitted, because summoning the physician or feeding the child would not have prevented the child's death from cancer.  convicted, because the father's treatment of his son showed reckless indifference to the value of life.  convicted, because the child would have died from malnutrition had he not been afflicted with cancer.