THE LAW AND DEAD BODIES

"Anomalous as it may seem at first blush, there are few issues in the field of jurisprudence as live as that concerning dead bodies- Whether or not a property right may inhere in a corpse, and if so, whether it constitutes real or personal property, has been a much mooted question.

The courts have almost uniformily held there are no property rights in the strict sense, or in the ordinary use of the term, in the dead body of a human being. However, the courts have always recognized a quasi-property right in the corpse which gives some appointed person the right to inter the remains.

This interest is circumscribed with exactness. The right is only that of burial and cannot be deviated from to the extent of dis- posing of the body in any purpose other than that of interment, whether for pecuniary gain or not.

This was-not always the case. In ancient Egypt a son could borrow money by hypothecating his father's body. Perhaps it is just as well that this interesting convention that is no longer conventional has passed into oblivion with the people who were most acquainted with it. This, because the Egyptian methods for embalming have been kept in the knowledge of no one with the exception of the Sphinx whose stone lips never move.

When a debtor said "Well, you'll collect that over my dead body!" in the Middle Ages it could be taken quite literally. For in some portions of Europe during that period the creditor was permitted to levy upon the body of his defunct deceased debtor... "

Read all at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4436&context=ndlr