Don Herzog
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300221541
- eISBN:
- 9780300227710
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300221541.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
An exploration of how we and the law think about corpse desecration. The chapter explores skeptical arguments that it can’t be an injury to the dead person, the history of revulsion against such ...
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An exploration of how we and the law think about corpse desecration. The chapter explores skeptical arguments that it can’t be an injury to the dead person, the history of revulsion against such desecration, and how the law came to see it not just as a crime but also as a tort – against the survivors, not the dead person. It reproduces and analyzes art by Goya and Veber. And it closes by examining a series of recent cases, including autopsies gone awry, and not least that of a mortuary worker who liked to get high and have sex with corpses.Less
An exploration of how we and the law think about corpse desecration. The chapter explores skeptical arguments that it can’t be an injury to the dead person, the history of revulsion against such desecration, and how the law came to see it not just as a crime but also as a tort – against the survivors, not the dead person. It reproduces and analyzes art by Goya and Veber. And it closes by examining a series of recent cases, including autopsies gone awry, and not least that of a mortuary worker who liked to get high and have sex with corpses.
Don Herzog
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300221541
- eISBN:
- 9780300227710
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300221541.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
If you defame the dead, even someone who recently died, tort law does not think that’s an injury: not to the grieving survivors and not to the dead person. This book argues that defamation is an ...
More
If you defame the dead, even someone who recently died, tort law does not think that’s an injury: not to the grieving survivors and not to the dead person. This book argues that defamation is an injury to the recently dead. It explores history, including the shaping of the common law, and offers an account of posthumous harm and wrong. Along the way, it offers a sustained exploration of how we and the law think about corpse desecration.Less
If you defame the dead, even someone who recently died, tort law does not think that’s an injury: not to the grieving survivors and not to the dead person. This book argues that defamation is an injury to the recently dead. It explores history, including the shaping of the common law, and offers an account of posthumous harm and wrong. Along the way, it offers a sustained exploration of how we and the law think about corpse desecration.