The Criminalization of Abortion in the West: Its Origins in Medieval Law

Wolfgang P. Müller

Published by Cornell University Press 2017

The Criminalization of Abortion in the West

Its Origins in Medieval Law

Wolfgang P. Müller

https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801464157

Overview
Contents

About this book

Wolfgang P. Müller tells the story of how abortion came to be criminalized in the West. As he shows, criminalization as a distinct phenomenon and abortion as a self-standing criminal category developed in tandem with each other.

Author / Editor information

Wolfgang P. Müller is Professor of History at Fordham University. He is the author of Huguccio: The Life, Works, and Thought of a Twelfth-Century Jurist and coeditor of Medieval Church Law and the Origins of the Western Legal Tradition.

Reviews

James A. Brundage, Ahmanson-Murphy Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History and Law, University of Kansas, author of The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession: Canonists, Civilians, and Courts:

Wolfgang P. Müller presents a well-informed, comprehensive account of the process that led to the classification of abortion of a human fetus as a species of homicide punishable by severe penalties up to and including execution of convicted perpetrators. The Criminalization of Abortion in the West is a substantial contribution to our knowledge about a critical facet of the history of abortion.

Edward Peters, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, author of Inquisition:

In The Criminalization of Abortion in the West, Wolfgang P. Müller addresses a question of broad modern interest and dispute. This is the definitive book on the subject of the history of the criminalization of abortion in the Western world and also a brilliant account of the history of the invention of criminalization itself—that is, early criminal law—in the Western legal tradition.

Muller traces the tortuous path of the treatment of abortion as a public crime (felony) between the late 12th and early 16th centuries.... He succeeds in demonstrating the shift in the settlement of disputes from the pre-12th-century local control of justice depending on local power and the strength of family status to a more public hearing under the control of centralizing authorities.... Added to these public tribunals to investigate abortion as a crime was the widespread public attitude that regarded it as no more than a sin, if that, subject to confession to a priest and the performance of penance.

Gwen Seabourne:

The Criminalization of Abortion in the West examines the processes which led to the voluntary killing of a human fetus becoming a crime, as opposed to a sin or a wrong compensable by a money payment....This book should be regarded as essential reading for those studying the interface between law and medicine in medieval Europe, to legal historians and social historians.

Zubin Mistry:

[T]he argumentation is intricate. To put it differently, this reader found that the importance of Criminalization rose to the surface upon a second reading. For, this is an important book, which will interest historians across the sub-disciplinary spectrum and not only late medievalists. It provides a stimulating account of the theoretical and practical development of medieval criminal justice and will become a sine qua non in the history of abortion.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Earliest Proponents of Criminalization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	20
2. Early Venues of Criminalization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
3. Chief Agents of Criminalization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	76
4. Principal Arguments in Favor of Criminalization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	100
5. Objections to Criminalization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
6. Abortion Experts and Expertise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
7. Abortion in the Criminal Courts of the Ius Commune Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
8. Forms of Punishment in the Criminal Courts of the Ius Commune Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
9. The Frequency of Criminal Prosecutions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	220
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 280
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 1
- Tables: 1
- Other: 1 chart/graph
Keywords: abortion; criminalization of abortion; history of abortion; Western legal tradition; Western jurisprudence; medieval law; medieval criminal justice; treatment of abortion in medieval Europe; abortion as a public crime; legal history; moral theology; literature

eBook

Published: May 22, 2012
ISBN: 9780801464157