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A petition has been launched in the United Kingdom to ensure electronics' pioneer Alan Turing's disgraceful treatment by the British government in the 1950's is acknowledged and a full pardon to the man known as the father of computers.
A petition has been launched in the United Kingdom to ensure electronics' pioneer Alan Turing's disgraceful treatment by the British government in the 1950's is acknowledged and a full pardon to the man known as the father of computers.

Alan Turing is a giant in the history of computers but is also remembered for his key role in the code breaking of the enigma machine in the Second World War that is widely seen as a key point in the eventual victory of the allied troops. In the world of computing he provided a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with his famous Turing machine, the theoretical tool that is still vital for today's computer engineers to determine the limitations of the most complex of todays CPUs. He is widely  considered the father of computing and artificial intelligence. 

Despite his enormous contributions to the world at large and especially the British Empire, Turing was the victim of horrendous homophobic attacks and his story is demonstrative of how morally backward a country such as the UK was only half a century. In a ruling that would be considered illegal and entrapment, Turing was arrested for gross indecency after attempting to report an aggravated result that had been committed against him. Rather than receive assistance from the courts he was arrested once it was ascertained he had sexual relations with his attacker in the past. Turing was subject to gross and invasive questionings and conclusions leading him to accept a course of female hormones (chemical castration) rather than face a long jail sentence.

The treatment was a disaster and Turing' capacity to continue in his work became slowly diminished as did the man himself leading him to commit suicide by ingesting cyanide only two weeks before his 42 birthday depriving the scientific world of one of its greatest minds still in its prime. It was not until September 2010 that the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, provided a public apology for the terrible treatment Turing received. The crimes he was accused of still stain the record of a great individual so a recent government opportunity for the public to influence government topics through online petitions has seen the announcement of a petition to completely exonerate Turing of any wrong doing and restore his record to an unblemished state. 

The petition is addressed to the: Ministry of Justice and states the following.

"˜We ask the HM Government to grant a pardon to Alan Turing for the conviction of 'gross indecency'. In 1952, he was convicted of 'gross indecency' with another man and was forced to undergo so-called 'organo-therapy' - chemical castration. Two years later, he killed himself with cyanide, aged just 41. Alan Turing was driven to a terrible despair and early death by the nation he'd done so much to save. This remains a shame on the UK government and UK history. A pardon can go to some way to healing this damage. It may act as an apology to many of the other gay men, not as well known as Alan Turing, who were subjected to these laws.'

The petition can be found here and the system requires 100 000 signatures to ensure the issue is raised in parliament.
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