Friday, April 27, 2012

Necrophilia?

Law Professor Ann Althouse, at her eponomous blog, talks about Egypt considering a law to allow sex between a surviving spouse and the deceased, for up to six hours after death.  In the comments is this:
If you had to make a law defining what constitutes a crime with respect to the treatment of a dead body, how much leeway would you give to the new widowers and widows?

My first question would be "why is "necrophilia" illegal anyway"?

Is it because there's no known way for the deceased to express consent?
I thought that was a funny comment, in a twisted sort of way.

Then we have this question:
I don't know how things go on a mountainside in Colorado, but isn't it conventionally "till death do you part"?
Then there are all those questions about the right to privacy.  Privacy should not be too quickly dismissed.  Just because "A" wouldn't do something doesn't mean we should have a law preventing "E" from doing it.

Regards  —  Cliff
at

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous4/28/2012 08:01:00 AM

    Right to privacy is quite often overblown and poorly understood leading to erroneous conclusions.

    As of May 2006, there is no federal legislation specifically barring sex with a corpse.[17] Multiple states have their own laws:

    Alabama - Class C felony under 13A-11-13
    Alaska - Class A misdemeanor under 11-61-130
    Arkansas - Class D felony under 5-60-101
    California - Illegal, up to three years in prison (a bill before the legislature would raise the penalty to 8 years)[citation needed]
    Colorado - Class 2 misdemeanor under 18-13-101
    Connecticut - Class A misdemeanor under 53a-73a
    Delaware - Class A misdemeanor under 11-5-1332
    Florida - Second degree felony under chapter 872.06
    Georgia - Felony, up to 10 years in prison under 16-6-7
    Hawaii - Misdemeanor under 7
    Iowa - Class D felony under 709.18
    Minnesota and Nevada also have laws prohibiting necrophilia[18]
    Ohio - Second/fifth degree misdemeanor under 2927.01
    Oregon - Felony for "Abuse of Corpse" ORS 166.085
    Pennsylvania - Second degree misdemeanor under Title 18 §5510
    Texas - Class A misdemeanor [1]
    Washington - Class C felony for "Sexually violating human remains" RCW 9A.44.105
    Wisconsin - Class G felony under 940.225 (7)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous4/28/2012 08:03:00 AM

    Note that MA does not have a law prohibiting necrophilia. This presumes that even in death, in MA the state can still screw you.

    ReplyDelete

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