CRM 2300 Lecture Notes - Henry Morgentaler

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRM 2300
• Professor: Valerie Steeves

Document Summary

Morgentaler (1975: sailors who were stranded and killed the cabin boy and ate him because they had nothing to eat for days, try to use defence of necessity in court, court recognized the defence existed, but the court said it couldn"t be used or made in this case, judge didn"t want to set a dangerous precedent people would kill the rough elements of society and claim it was under necessity, accused of conspiracy to commit miscarriage/abortion, before the charter was in place to have them done in a hospital, tried to use the defence of necessity, if he hadn"t done the abortion he was worried the patient would do something harmful to themselves to not be pregnant anymore, court said it couldn"t be made out of the facts, court defined it as urgent situations of clear and imminent peril when compliance with law is demonstrably impossible .