Necessity (as a term of
jurisprudence) is a possible
justification for breaking the
law.
Defendants who use this
defense are arguing that they should not be held
liable for a
crime, since the
actions taken were, for some reason or other, "necessary". In an early
trial, for which this defense was used,
Crown v. Dudly & Stephens[?] (late-
1800s), two
shipwrecked[?] sailors decided to
eat a
cabin boy[?]. The
court ruled that
cannibalizing the indidivual was not necessary; the sailors were found
guilty of
murder. Other courts have ruled, in cases where the eaten individual had died of "
natural causes[?]" and
starvation was an issue, that cannibalism was acceptable.