necessity

• what is necessity


  - necessity involves a claim of justification on Ds part

  - Ds crime is justified because he was put in a situation where he had to choose between the lesser of two evils to avoid greater harm.
• dudley and stephens


  - two defendants ate cabin boy to survive

  - convicted of murder and claim for necessity rejected

  
  

  - in line with duress also not being available for murder
• what did Re A conjoined twins establish

  - could save one and let the weaker twin die

  - or lose them both

  - parents refused consent to seperate them

  - court granted the declaration

  - lord justice brooke said defence of necessity would be available to doctors were they to be charged with murder
• lord justice brooke established 4 principles of necessity

  1) act was done only in order to avoid consequences which could'nt otherwise be avoided

  2) those consequences would have inflicted irreparable evil

  3) no more was done than reasonably necessary for that purpose

  4) the evil inflicted by it wasn't disproportionate to evil avoided
• attempts to extend medical necessity for use of cannabis

  QUAYLE AND OTHERS

  -cannabis used to relieve pain of multiple scelorises and injuries

  - held that general prohibition of such drugs in the national interest outweighed the benefits to individual patients and the defence failed