Cloning - The assualt on the sanctity of life
Brian Lockyer Grade 12 Life Sciences Research Task 1/03/08 Do you support the process of harvesting body parts and cloning methods? The History of cloning Cloning has been occurring in the natural world for thousands of years. A clone is just a time-delayed twin of another person or animal which results in both organisms acquiring the same set of genes. Throughout history and most notably in the last hundred years huge strives have been made in the field of genetics, and they are bound to keep on happening. The first person known to have successfully cloned an animal was Hans Dreisch in the late 1800's. Dreisch used sea urchins because they have large embryo cells and through his experiments he proved that genetic material is not lost during cell division. In 1902, Hans Spemman successfully separated a 2 celled embryo of a salamander which eventually developed into an identical salamander. Both these early breakthroughs paved the way for the modern concept of cloning. The next advance happened fifty years later in a laboratory in Philadelphia where a group of scientists successfully cloned a frog embryo. This breakthrough was huge because the team did not simply break off a cell from the embryo of the frog; they removed the nucleus and replaced it for the nucleus of an unfertilized frog egg cell. This was a huge breakthrough for modern
Criminal Law Coursework - Criminal Damage
Criminal Law Coursework - Criminal Damage a) Jason could be charged under s.1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971. In his case both the actus reus and mens rea are satisfied. The act of breaking the door down when entering the flat would satisfy the actus reus, this is because James has damaged property belonging to another without lawful excuse. The door is obviously the property in question. Whether the damaged property had been destroyed or damaged is irrelevant has no significance, the fact that the property had been impaired of its value and usefulness is significant enough as stated in Roper v Knott (1898). The mens rea is also satisfied as there was clear intention to commit this act. The fire that Jason started with the newspaper would also constitute an offence. Jason could be charged under s.1(3) of the Criminal damage act 1971. This section is used when property is destroyed or damage by fire. By burning the newspaper Jason satisfies the actus reus, it is also clear that the necessary mens rea, intention, which is evident as he says in a police statement that he intended to start the fire but put it out once the newspaper had burnt. Although the newspaper is not that valuable it would still constitute an offence under s1 of the Criminal Damage Act. The question that now arises is whether Jason had an intention to burn the carpet once he set fire to the
Criminal investigations and the criminal justice system
Law: unit 25 - criminal investigation procedures Assignment 3 criminal investigations and the criminal justice system Tahir Hussain The main aim of the probation services is protecting the public Probation officers work with offenders by combining continuous assessment and management of risk and dangerousness with the provision of expert supervision programs designed to reduce re-offending. They work for the Probation Service, which aims to rehabilitate offenders and reduce re-offending, protect the public, properly punish offenders in the community and ensure offenders are aware of the effects of crime on their victims and the general public. Probation officers work closely with police and prison colleagues, as well as with local authorities, health, education and housing departments and a broad range of independent and voluntary sector partners. They also engage with the victims of crime. * interviewing offenders in the office, at court, in prison, hostels, at other penal institutions and in their homes; * preparing and presenting pre-sentence reports to the courts - each year probation helps magistrates and judges with their sentencing decisions by providing around 235,000 pre-sentence reports; * writing reports combining risk and danger assessments on prisoners to help prison governors and parole and lifer review boards determine when to release a
criminal law
Question: 3(a) Select any one of the following areas and write a paper advising the Attorney-General whether Singaporean criminal law is in need of reform and, if so, your recommendations and reasons for such reform:- (a) the fault elements of the offence under s 304A of the Penal Code; or (b) the law of causation. An Essay Seeking to Decriminalise Negligence The concept of Negligence sits uneasily with criminal liability. All modern criminal theories consist predominately of a Retributivism-Utilitarianism dichotomy. 1 While a Retributivist asserts that punishment is awarded by virtue of the accused's moral culpability, the Utilitarian seeks to advance the net social benefit by capitalizing on punishment's deterrent effect.2 This is predicated on the notion of a 'felicific calculus' by which a rational man with the freedom of choice will avoid criminal conduct because the benefits from his crime are outweighed by the potential pains from punishments.3 Despite these differing objectives, both theories are critically dependant upon 2 factors: 1) The accused's knowledge of the harmful nature of his conduct and 2) his choice of carrying on with the conduct despite this knowledge. However, a negligent actor is subjectively unaware of the unjustified risk created by his conduct. As such, it is dubious that the accused is morally blameworthy, and that punishment in this context
Criminal law
There are a number of important issues raised by the question, in connected with the criminal law. These issues will be looked at in relation to the scenario, which is presented by the question. In addition, the criminal liability of various individuals will be considered. The first important issue that is raised by this scenario is that of intention. Intention is one of the forms of Mens Rea ('Guilty mind') for crimes. Intention is defined as 'the state of mind of one who aims to bring about a consequence'1. However, a distinct needs to be made between the different types of intention, direct and oblique intention. Direct intention is as the definition says having an aim and bringing about that desired consequence. Oblique intention, on the other hand, is 'seeing' your desired aim as one of a number of possibilities on your act e.g. there could be many outcomes to your criminal act and your aim is just one of them. The issue of Intention raises very important questions for the criminal law and often it is up to the jury to decide whether the accused has the necessary intent to cause the crime. As regards the scenario, it could be argued, that Andy has a 'direct intention' to hit Bill as he 'deliberately kicks the ball in the direction of Bill'. There has been much debate within the courts as to what constitutes the requisite degree of intention. This has ranged
Criminal Sentencing
Criminal Sentencing Beretta Smallwood Juvenile Justice 301 Ron Nimmer June 8, 2008 Criminal Sentencing Rules about punishment, such as how much punishment can be inflicted and for what kinds of behavior, are of course contained in laws and regulations, so in this sense law justifies punishment. However, the moral justification for punishment is a separate issue from the legal justification because, although the law may provide for the infliction of punishment, society's moral justification for punishment still has to be established. To punish a person for the crime they were convicted of committing. To sentence a criminal is to remove their freedom to move about in society for some specified period of time. In this paper the author will discuss the purpose of criminal sentencing or punishment. 150 years ago, there was a theory that criminals could be reformed in prison and returned to society as changed persons who would not voluntarily break the laws again. Most U.S. prisons required inmates to work to pay their keep. One prison warden in the East (an ordained minister), required all new inmates to spend time in solitary confinement when they arrived to reflect on the actions that got them there in the first place. They were not allowed to join the general prison population or engage in work until they understood what they had done wrong. The return rate for these
Criminal law
The future increase of Singapore's population to 6.5 million will mean the influx of foreigners. This, coupled with the fact that many recent homicide cases have involved foreign workers, raises the essential question: should cultural defence continue to play the small role it does under the provocation defence or should it become a defence proper? It is submitted that the cultural defence should continue to play the role it does in the provocation defence and the cultural defence should be an additional factor determining the culpability of an individual in meting out individualised justice. Chan Sek Keong asserts that the Penal Code reflects universal values of morality1. Given Singapore's status as a multi-racial and multi-religious society, this seemingly rings true at least with regards to homicide. However, on Haviland's definition, that "culture consists the abstract values, beliefs, and perceptions of the world that lie behind people's behaviour and which that behaviour reflects,"2 it is submitted that Singapore's culture as a whole is greatly influenced by western values and Singapore is not really multicultural. Furthermore, cases like People v Kimura, suggest that there are slightly different cultural attitudes to homicide. Before we look at the problem of cultural defence, it is best to relook at the underlying principles of criminal punishment and the role
Criminal Law
Having studied the scenario I would assume that the principle issue arising out of this scenario is theft and other main offences related to theft such as deception. The fundamental Act dealing with this scenario is the Theft Act 1968 and 1978. This essay evokes a step by step analysis of the key aspects of criminal law with regards to theft and related offences. I will attempt to break down the situations and analyse it from a criminal law perspective, in the series as they arise in the question. Through this essay I will endeavour to explore the potential criminal liability arising out of this scenario. There are four different individuals in this scenario and I will discuss their potential criminal liability separately, starting with Vanessa. Vanessa: In Criminal law two key elements must be borne in mind in order to establish whether a person is guilty of an offence. These two elements are: actus reus and mens rea. Actus reus being the unlawful act and mens rea is the state of the mind of the accused. In order for the accused to be guilty not only must he/she have committed the unlawful act but also have a guilty mind, as only the blameworthy should be punished for their actions. To ascertain whether she is potentially criminally liable for any offence I would establish as to whether her actions constituted theft, deception and whether she has any defences. Under
Criminal Appeals
CRIMINAL APPEALS Introduction Lord Woolf wrote, in his Report, Access to Justice, that there are two main purposes of appeals. The first is the private one of doing justice in individual cases by correcting wrong decisions. The second is the public one of engendering public confidence in the administration of justice by making those corrections and in clarifying and developing the law. The two courts which hear criminal trial are Magistrate's Court and the Crown Court. The actual court for the trial is decided by the category of the crime involved in the charge. Summary offences can only be tried by the Magistrate's Court; indictable offences can only be tried at the Crown Court, while triable either way offences may be tried at either court. Hence, the procedure of appeal depends upon how a case was originally tried, whether summarily or on indictment. Appeal Following Summary Trial Appeals from Magistrates' Courts If the defendant pleaded guilty, an appeal lies from the Magistrates' Court to the Crown Court against sentence only. If the defendant pleaded not guilty, he can appeal to the Crown Court against either conviction or sentence or both. An appeal to the Crown Court takes the form of a complete rehearing of the case with witnesses but without a jury. The Crown Court has power to confirm, reverse or vary the decision under appeal, or to remit the case with
Criminal Law
Criminal Law Coursework One of the major elements in culpability is that the accused should have a mental state commensurate with committing the offence. Nearly all criminal offences require a demonstration of mens rea. However, it is unusual to see the term mens rea used in statute; instead statutes use terms like `intend' or `reckless' to express the mental state of the perpetrator. It is paramount to define recklessness, however 'recklessness has thrown up definitional problems in the last fifteen years or so'1 The law relating to recklessness has developed and changed over a long time and for much of this time the two types of recklessness have been Cunningham2 Recklessness and Caldwell3 recklessness, however this has recently changed. This essay will discuss the history of recklessness, how the case of R v G and R4 has affected or clarified the law and the proposals for reform which were considered as a result of the case. The law on recklessness has a complex history. It started in the Malicious Damage Act 1861 which stated that 'whoever shall unlawfully and maliciously commit any damage, injury, or spoil being to an amount exceeding five pounds, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.'5 The first person to be charged under this act was in the case of R v Pembliton6 however the conviction was quashed as he did not intend to 'unlawfully and maliciously' cause the outcome.
