Who owns my corpse?

humanji

This is an odd little question, but who owns my corpse when I die?

The reason I ask is that I watched an episode of CSI Miami (don't judge me!) and the episode had a guy who was murdered, but he had stipulated in his will that when he died he wanted to be frozen, which caused a bit of a problem when the police wanted to do an autopsy and it lead to Horatio removing and replacing his sunglasses many times in frustration.

So it made me wonder who has the right to say what happens to your body. It's not as exciting a situation as CSI, but if I died and had in my will that I wanted to be cremated and cast out into the ocean, do my family get to refuse because they want me buried in the family lot? Can a family or will stop an autopsy being performed, be it on religious grounds or for crazy plans involving a bucket of ice and my head?

seamus

humanji wrote: »

This is an odd little question, but who owns my corpse when I die?

The reason I ask is that I watched an episode of CSI Miami (don't judge me!) and the episode had a guy who was murdered, but he had stipulated in his will that when he died he wanted to be frozen, which caused a bit of a problem when the police wanted to do an autopsy and it lead to Horatio removing and replacing his sunglasses many times in frustration.

So it made me wonder who has the right to say what happens to your body. It's not as exciting a situation as CSI, but if I died and had in my will that I wanted to be cremated and cast out into the ocean, do my family get to refuse because they want me buried in the family lot? Can a family or will stop an autopsy being performed, be it on religious grounds or for crazy plans involving a bucket of ice and my head?

My suspicion here is that it depends on the cause of death as declared by the doctor attending. That is, if the doctor determines that it was not a death of natural causes, then the Gardai have special powers to carry out a full autopsy if they think it's necessary.

I only think this because otherwise we would have a serious amount of cases where someone dies and is cremated before any kind of examination can be carried out, in order to destroy the evidence.

dermot_sheehan

Your corpse is not considered property and can not be owned.

It is the personal representative's duty however to take charge of the body and bury it/cremate it in accordance with law (i.e. in accordance with the Public Health (Ireland) Act 1878)

sam34

certain deaths are reportable to the coronor, and he/she can demand a post mortem, which cannot be refused by the family or anyone else.

reportable deaths are those in which there are suspicious circumstances, suicides, deaths in a psychiatric ward, deaths within 24 hours of hospital admission etc (not an exhaustive list)

the coronor may then decide to demand a post mortem, or may review the case and decide theres no need for one.

not sure about wishes re cremation etc, although i do know that next of kin can override your decision to be an organ donor after death - a ridiculous situation imo, but thats for another thread

NUTLEY BOY

N.A.M.A.

humanji

Cheers guys.

Irishpimpdude

Can i be frozen when i die?????!!!! i soo wanna do that

kmick

Once I pass into the great beyond as far as im concerned they can do what they like with it. Its like a pair of shoes that are four sizes too small - absolutely useless. Some people let their ego get in the way of this fact.