Rex v Bourne, The King v Aleck Bourne, or the Bourne Judgment, was a British landmark court case in 1938 relating to an abortion performed by obstetric surgeon Aleck Bourne on a 14-year-old girl who had become pregnant as a result of being raped. The judge directed the jury towards the concept that situations arise where abortion might protect the health of the mother. Bourne was found not guilty of performing the procedure unlawfully and the judgment set the precedence for several subsequent abortion cases and the Abortion Act 1967 (UK).
Seeking a termination of her pregnancy in May 1938, the girl came to the attention of Bourne, who had been awaiting such a case to test in the courts. He admitted her to St Mary's Hospital in June, informed authorities of his intention to perform the operation, carried it out, and then asked to be arrested.
Charged under section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 for procuring an abortion, it was decided that the case should go to trial at the Old Bailey before a judge and jury. With the term "unlawful" added to the charge, the trial took place on 18 and 19 July 1938. The prosecution was led by Donald Sumervell, while Bourne was defended by Mr G. A. Thesiger and Roland Oliver. In his direction, the judge Sir Malcolm Macnaghten, asked the jury to answer not the question of whether Bourne performed the operation in good faith to preserve the girl's life, but whether Bourne's actions were "not done in good faith for the purpose only of preserving the life of the girl."[1][2] It took the jury 40 minutes to come to the verdict that Bourne was not guilty.
The trial received widespread interest from the public, medical professionals and legal establishments.
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^Cite error: The named reference Macnaghten1938 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
RexvBourne, The King v Aleck Bourne, or the Bourne Judgment, was a British landmark court case in 1938 relating to an abortion performed by obstetric...
Obstetrics and Gynæcology, 3rd edition, 1963. George Lotrell Timanus RexvBourne "Bourne, Aleck William (1886–1974), obstetrician and gynaecologist | Oxford...
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later West Middlesex. On 27 April 1938 he examined the victim in the RexvBourne trial. Gorsky married Doreen Stephens in 1942. He died in Australia on...
Offences Against the Person Act 1861, Legislation.gov.uk. Articles 58–59. Rexv. Bourne, Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, 18–19 July 1938. Supplementary...
mention any legal ground for abortion. However, the judicial decision RexvBourne in England and Wales clarified that the law always implicitly allowed...
of the 1938 English RexvBourne decision in determining whether an abortion performed for health reasons is lawful. In the Bourne decision, a physician...
Aleck Bourne. He performed an abortion, then illegal, and was put on trial on charges of procuring abortion. Bourne was eventually acquitted in Rexv Bourne...
illegal. The UK case of RexvBourne of 1938 is highly influential, even to this day, in Trinidad and Tobago abortion laws. Dr. Bourne was tried under the...
Tanzanian law. The judicial decision in the 1938 British court case RexvBourne was affirmed by the East African Court of Appeal, which had jurisdiction...
and Nevis also follows precedents set in British abortion law, such as RexvBourne (1938), in which the court ruled that an abortion performed on a teenage...
of the pregnant woman. This principle was clarified in the 1938 case Rexv. Bourne, in which Justice Malcolm Macnaghten ruled that abortion could be legally...
House, Portballintrae, County Antrim. Macnaghten died in 1955, aged 86. RexvBourne "Death of Sir Malcolm Martin Macnaughten". Belfast Newsletter. 25 January...
Bourne Eau is a short river which rises from an artesian spring in the town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, England, and flows in an easterly direction to...
England. "Bourne Castle (348162)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 21 July 2010. Needle, Rex (2010). "Well Head park". Bourne United Charities...
the church including the current restoration programme). Bourne Abbey Website Rex Needle's Bourne Abbey history Links to relevant documents Portals: Christianity...
2018. Bourne, pp. 145–149. Bourne, p. 150 Bourne, pp.154–155 Bourne, pp. 149–153. Bourne, pp. 153–165. Bourne, pp. 165–179. Hayward, pp. 39–46. Bourne, pp...
make him the son of Edith, a descendant of Oslac of York, and Leofric of Bourne, nephew of Ralph the Staller. Alternatively, it has also been argued that...
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Dragon (2002), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Incredible Hulk (2008), and The Bourne Legacy (2012). For his role in the black comedy Birdman (2014), Norton earned...
Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography, p. 56. Bourne, Michael, "An Informal Interview with Rex Stout"; 1998, James...
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