Analysis of UK Laws: Abortion, Death Penalty, and Assisted Dying

This report provides an overview of the laws in the UK concerning abortion, the death penalty, and assisted dying. It begins by discussing the Abortion Act 1967, which decriminalized abortion under specific circumstances, and highlights the importance of medical confirmation for legal abortions. The report then addresses the abolition of the death penalty in the UK, detailing its historical context and the subsequent debate over its impact on crime rates. Finally, it examines the legal status of assisted dying in the UK, particularly focusing on the Suicide Act 1961, which makes assisting suicide a punishable offense. The report also references relevant academic sources to support its analysis.

VALUE OF LIFE

Laws related with abortion, death penalty and assisted dying
Different countries have different laws that are implemented according to their culture,
history and needs. Religion also plays an important role in formulating laws for a particular
region (Shen, Landis and Tower, 2016). Separate laws for death penalty, assisted killing and
abortion are needed because most the time people never agree for same results and want to
implement thing in their own ways. Laws associated in UK with death penalty, abortion and
assisted dying are as follow:
Abortion: It is a termination of pregnancy by medical means. Law prevailed in UK regarding
this is clarified in Abortion act 1967. It decriminalize abortion but only in certain regulations.
Circumstances like doctor's confirmation about the need of abortion, danger to life of mother,
injury to health of concerned pregnant women, risks related with development of child when
born are valid reason for abortion.
Death penalty: In 1965, death penalty in UK was abolished initially by suspending the Murder
Act. In 1969 Abolition and death penalty Act was completely suspended. Capital punishments
related with piracy and treason with violence was abolished in 1988 (Corr, Corr and Doka,
2018). This has reduced the fear in the minds of criminal before doing a crime. This has also
increased crime rate in country.
Assisted dying: It means deliberately motivating someone to kill themselves. For example, If
an individual in UK is suffering from terminal illness and take sedatives that can harm life. It
will be a punishable offence. Under Suicide Act 1961, fourteen years of jail will be given to
individual involved in it.

REFRENCES
Books and journals
Corr, C. A., Corr, D. M. and Doka, K. J., 2018.Death & dying, life & living. Cengage learning.
Shen, J., Landis, G. N. and Tower, J., 2016. Multiple metazoan life-span interventions exhibit a
sex-specific strehler–mildvan inverse relationship between initial mortality rate and age-
dependent mortality rate acceleration. Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biomedical
Sciences and Medical Sciences. 72(1). pp.44-53.