POLS 3130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Born Alive Rule, Anachronism, Henry Morgentaler

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 3130
• Professor: Dave Snow

Document Summary

Week 12 morgentaler v borowski (chapter 19-end) Result: only one judge declares right to abortion. Still left room for parliament to legislate: no u(cid:374)ified, si(cid:374)gle opi(cid:374)io(cid:374), (cid:271)ut . Law (s. 251) struck down, no force/effect: politi(cid:272)al (cid:858)hot potato(cid:859) (cid:271)a(cid:272)k (cid:449)ith parlia(cid:373)e(cid:374)t. De(cid:272)lares it (cid:373)oot: no la(cid:449) to (cid:272)halle(cid:374)ge: no longer a live dispute. Result: scc does not address whether unborn child is included in s. 7. Borowski: would have punched the judges in the nose. Lifted injunction, written reasons 3 months later (the court): no (cid:272)lear i(cid:374)te(cid:374)t i(cid:374) que(cid:271)e(cid:272)(cid:859)s charter for fetal right to life. Private dispute between two parties, no state action. Unnecessary constitutional pronouncements should be avoided: case also applies to common law jurisdiction. After 3 judicial decisions: no law parliament has free reign, context: majority pc government, 25% of mps explicitly pro-life, goal: compromise legislation: July 1988: government legislative proposal: distinction between early and later stages of pregnancy. Other amendments allowed: every proposal defeated.