Word: ellenborough
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Great Britain's historical opposition to abortion comes from both common and canon law. In 1803 Lord Ellenborough pushed through a bill to make abortion a crime punishable by death if performed after the fetus had "quickened." In 1837 Parliament revised the law, eliminating the death penalty, but in the process lost the distinction between abortion before and after quickening and consequently outlawed all abortion. A 1929 change made abortion illegal except to save the life of the pregnant woman...
...Cesare Beccaria, who argued that harsh punishments had a brutalizing effect upon society and thus bred crime instead of deterring it. But to the rulers of England, it seemed that capital punishment, even for offenses now considered petty, was necessary for the preservation of law and order. Cried Lord Ellenborough, Chief Justice of England, speaking in the House of Lords in 1810 against a bill to abolish the death penalty for shoplifting: "I am certain depredations to an unlimited extent would immediately be committed . . . Repeal this law and see the contrast-no man can trust himself for an hour...