Key Figures in Humanism
Barbara Wootton
1897 - 1988
Baroness Wootton of Abinger was a British sociologist and criminologist. She was one of the first four life peers appointed in 1958. She was President of the British Sociological Association. In the Second World War she considered herself as a conscientious objector, although she was never liable for military service. She was a supporter of utilitarianism. She supported an "Incurable Patients Bill" in the 1970s which would have allowed doctor-assisted suicide. Her views on abortion which are pro-life but without any religious basis led her to be removed from her position as Vice-President of the British Humanist Association.
