Is it really illegal to have yourself stuffed (i.e. by a taxidermist) when you die? If I put such a request in my will, and my family did not oppose to it - would it really be illegal to have this done? I heard there is a law that forbids this. Is this just an american law? Or do all/most countries have similar laws?
No, I don’t really want to have myself stuffed, nor do I know anyone who does - but it would seem like a personal decision, and if someone wants to be stuffed/mounted/freeze dried when they die, what is so wrong with that? We let people burn their dead bodies if they request cremation. Sure many people would find it creepy to have a stuffed person in their house - but because a majority of people find something odd or creepy should not be a reason for prohibiting it. Our law typically gives great deference to a person’s dying wishes - so why forbid them from being stuffed if those are their wishes?
I don’t necessarily think it’s a law as much as just finding someone to do it. What self-respecting taxidermist would voluntarily take that job? There may be a law about it, but Google wasn’t much help in finding it. I know that an old Roy Rogers joke was that he would be stuffed and put on Trigger after his death.
no i actually heard there was a prohibition against it. In other words, if bill gates offered a taxidermist 50 million dollars to do it, he wouldn’t be allowed to. It surely wouldn’t be cheap, and i would imagine it would be hard to find someone to do it regardless… but everything has a price. Maybe there is an underground, high-priced human taxidermy service?
I don’t know about the laws; sorry - but I do some fish taxidermy, and I think that your mounted self would look pretty bad. Big animals (I think) almost always have fur, so you don’t see much bare skin. I don’t stuff animals, but I imagine there would be some heavy-duty work on your skin to make it look half-ways decent since you have no fur to cover it up. I have seen on TV (TLC) where they tried to recreate the mumification process on a body just a few years ago. It worked pretty well too. That’s not really a true taxidermy job, but close. The man they used donated his body to the project, and it was all done very professionaly - so it may be possible… although he is in some museum or school now, not hanging above the mantle with a dry fly stuck in his lip.
Of course, you could just donate your body to that German (?) guy who runs the scientific exhibit with the plasticized people…it’s more or less the same thing…
I saw on candid camera once they asked a taxidermist if he would be willing to stuff a human. The host went and brought his mother, saying that his mother was the one to be stuffed when she died. The guy said he would do it if it was legal. They never said on the show whether it actually was. My point? Nothing really, cept that there ARE taxidermists who would do it.
In general I do not think it is illegal. This would be a state law matter, not federal.
I can tell you there is some old woman in some southern state who has her husband stuffed in her living room. It was on some TV magazine, I forget which.
I doubt there is a law specifically saying you cannot stuff a person. Amybe there are laws of a more general nature which would, in effect, not allow it.
I’ve done westlaw and lexis searches and I cannot find a statute that says this is illegal… but i was told by my property professor that it was - and got into a debate about it. She said it was a health code violation. I said “so it is okay for me to stuff a filthy, rabies-ridden deer/bear/etc, but not myself? I dont have any diseases and take 2 showers a day” … she said it would be demoralizing to human dignity and would lead to people buying and selling dead bodies, and eventually we would have “skin lampshades” like the Nazis made. I said the Nazis cremated people too - so why is cremation not against human dignity? I don’t see the problem… call me horrible. If i wanna be stuffed for whatever eccentric, nutty reason - it’s my body and nobody should tell me i cant. I’m sure it would be a state law question… but who knows? I couldnt find any law regulating stuff like this, but i have a feeling i didn’t search well enough. Any will and estate lawyers out there?
If any sicko wants to buy some human skin or any other parts of my body when I die, I’ll sign whatever contracts you bring me for cash. Prices will vary, but I’d probably let you have the whole thing for $50,000 up front.
that’s entirely different. you should be allowed to do that too, but that’s not what i’m talking about.
now, i do know for a fact it IS illegal to sell your body parts while you are alive. You can give them though, for free. Sorta sucks - your body is your property, you can give it away (well, non-vital parts, i.e. ONE kidney, but not 2, or not your heart)… but you cant sell it. The price of a black market kidney is $18k. By not allowing you to sell it, that’s an illegal taking of property in my opinion, and should be compensable under the takings clause of the constitution.
But if ya just wanna put it in your will that you are to be stuffed and mounted, that should be perfectly fine and legal. but is it?
Also known as a cadaver although, as set out in the Legal Definition of Cadaver, the latter is preferred when the dead human body is destined for autopsy or other medical study as opposed to burial, cremation or other funeral service.
Abuse of a human corpse is an offense in certain jurisdictions; for example, in Texas Penal Code, §48.02:
"A person commits an offense if the person, without legal authority, knowingly: (1) disinters, disturbs, damages, dissects, in whole or in part, carries away, or treats in an offensive manner a human corpse; (2) conceals a human corpse knowing it to be illegally disinterred; (3) sells or buys a human corpse or in any way traffics in a human corpse; (4) transmits or conveys, or procures to be transmitted or conveyed, a human corpse to a place outside the state; or (5) vandalizes, damages, or treats in an offensive manner the space in which a human corpse has been interred or otherwise permanently laid to rest…
“Human corpse includes: (1) any portion of a human corpse; (2) the cremated remains of a human corpse; or (3) any portion of the cremated remains of a human corpse.”
As Skene and masters correctly wrote in their 2002 article:
"In early English cases (mostly from the nineteenth century) and also in Australia, courts had to decide who was entitled to possession of the body of a deceased person. The principle was established that there is no property in a corpse; and neither a corpse, nor parts of a corpse are property protected by rights.1
"A corpse could therefore not be owned; nor could it be stolen. However, the personal representatives of the deceased were entitled to possession of the body for the purpose of burial and could obtain an order of mandamus to get the body back for burial if it was held by someone else. The no property in a corpse rule seems to be the same today, both in the United Kingdom and in Australia, despite the small number of cases on which it was based.
"In ... Calma v Sesar,2 the parents of a deceased Aboriginal boy were arguing about where he should be buried. The court said that the parents had equal rights to possession of the body for burial, but did not ‘own’ the body."
There is a company that did in fact mummify human corpses.
But while their experiment was successful, they ran into state law which said that
the remains must be INTERRED deep down (and not disturbed… not looked at… not touchable… ) or CREMATED in a timely fashion.
So the human experiment came to an end. They intend to create pressure to get the law changed so that they can create above ground mummies created.
See
here they are… they seem to promise burial , but as a mummy…
Robert Lenkiewicz, a rather eccentric English artist, led the authorities of his home town of Plymouth on a merry dance over the fate of the body of vagrant friend of the artist who he called Diogenes. On the death of his friend Lenkiewicz embalmed his body and hid it. Claiming he wanted to keep it as a large paperweight.
This led a lot of consternation by the city authorities who were sure he had broken some kind of law, but were not sure exactly which one applied. Lenkiewicz had a very antagonistic relationship with officialdom, who featured in some of his paintings, along with those of wives and the many vagrants he befriended.
