How is this for an intriguing question; do you own your body? I imagine the number of people who could answer this question would hardly fill a postage stamp. Firstly, I can answer this question because I am a nerd. Secondly, this is because I studied burial and cremation law back in the 1960’s. I mentioned this study in my recent post on grave re-use. I got a pretty decent mark for this subject because I found it so interesting. The legal definition arose after bodies were stolen in the past and the body-snatchers were to be prosecuted. In common law, the judge decided that there is no property in a dead body. Consequently, you cannot own your body. The body-snatchers were charged with stealing the shroud!

Death wishes

You may think this has no real impact on our lives but I beg to differ. It means that when you die you cannot leave binding insructions on what happens to your body. Consequently, rather than burial you end up on fire in a cremator. The chances of this happening are remote because our relatives can be relied upon to follow our wishes. But what if you have no relatives? Many of us want to avoid contributing to global warming and so prefer to be buried in a natural burial site. The fact is that many of us will not have any relatives left when we die, especially those with no children. An executor will not have the same awareness.

Do you own your own body

The Law Commission are going to consider this question in a future consultation. I mentioned their present consultation in my post on grave re-use. It sounds as if they will give us the legal right to control what happens to our body, probably in our will. I look forward to that, as will many others. Those with a religious concern will be able to dictate their religious preference. That will give them some peace. It will also remove my ability to be somewhat tiresome, the nerd on death issues. I will miss that, even if nobody takes a blind bit of notice!