You are a surgeon and you are trying to help someone who is dangerously ill. You did everything you can to keep him alive but failed. Even if you tried your hardest, you caused his death and in result of that, your hands needs to be cut off. How absurd is that law? However, it was not that unbelievable during 1750 B.C.E when Hammurabi was ruling a small city state in Mesopotamia called Babylonia (“Hammurabi’s). Hammurabi made a set of laws known as Hammurabi’s Code of Laws. Hammurabi's code was supposed to “encourage people to live as peaceful, responsible citizens.” (Laws). and to lower crime rates. Sounds like a good idea, right? Well that idea turned disastrous for most. Hammurabi’s code should be remembered as a negative event being
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Women did not have a lot of rights than the men. Women were treated unfairly and people at that time though of women as a lower classmen. Women had strict punishments when it came down to relationships with a man. Some laws were not logical and was irrational. For example, law 132 reads, “If the ‘finger is pointed’ at a man's wife about another man, but she is not caught sleeping with the other man, she shall jump into the river for her husband” (“Code”). What is the woman really did not lie and stayed truthful? If she never got caught, why did she have to jump into the river anyway? That law is not right for women because there are innocent women however, they still received a punishment. If men were pointed fingers at of lying or cheating, they would not have jumped into the river. Men also had a choice in letting their wife go or not. For example, law 141 says,”If a man's wife, who lives in his house, wishes to leave it, plunges into debt, tries to ruin her house, neglects her husband, and is judicially convicted: if her husband offer her release, she may go on her way, and he gives her nothing as a gift of release. If her husband does not wish to release her, and if he take another wife, she shall remain as servant in her husband's house” (“Code”). He basically determines if she stays or goes and that choice affects her life enormously. Women never had a right …show more content…
Most of the people receive punishments for having the blame on them even though they were not caught breaking Hammurabi’s code. In one law, a river determined if a man was guilty or innocent. For example, law 2 says, “If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser” (“Code”). How can a river determine a man’s innocence? The only thing you can do is to trust your luck when it comes to this situation. However, a code of laws should not be based upon
Women did not have a lot of rights than the men. Women were treated unfairly and people at that time though of women as a lower classmen. Women had strict punishments when it came down to relationships with a man. Some laws were not logical and was irrational. For example, law 132 reads, “If the ‘finger is pointed’ at a man's wife about another man, but she is not caught sleeping with the other man, she shall jump into the river for her husband” (“Code”). What is the woman really did not lie and stayed truthful? If she never got caught, why did she have to jump into the river anyway? That law is not right for women because there are innocent women however, they still received a punishment. If men were pointed fingers at of lying or cheating, they would not have jumped into the river. Men also had a choice in letting their wife go or not. For example, law 141 says,”If a man's wife, who lives in his house, wishes to leave it, plunges into debt, tries to ruin her house, neglects her husband, and is judicially convicted: if her husband offer her release, she may go on her way, and he gives her nothing as a gift of release. If her husband does not wish to release her, and if he take another wife, she shall remain as servant in her husband's house” (“Code”). He basically determines if she stays or goes and that choice affects her life enormously. Women never had a right …show more content…
Most of the people receive punishments for having the blame on them even though they were not caught breaking Hammurabi’s code. In one law, a river determined if a man was guilty or innocent. For example, law 2 says, “If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser” (“Code”). How can a river determine a man’s innocence? The only thing you can do is to trust your luck when it comes to this situation. However, a code of laws should not be based upon