# Tears after death?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tears-after-death/128551>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 15, 2002, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tears-after-death/128551 "2002-09-15T15:57:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![B\_Williams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@B\_Williams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B_Williams)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tears-after-death/128551/1 "2002-09-15T15:57:19Z")

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Please understand I don’t want this to sound morbid,but it is something that has troubled me since 1994.After my husbands death tears kept strolling down his face.Could this be a medical situation having to deal with the tear ducts or the fact that he didn’t want to leave us?

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tears-after-death/128551/2 "2002-09-15T18:00:35Z")

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Human tear ducts do not continue to produce tears after death, and dead people do not weep, but I did find a couple of references to seals.

[http://odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/environment/032091-991010/index-dok000-b-n-a.html](http://odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/environment/032091-991010/index-dok000-b-n-a.html)

> [@](#):
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> The fluid in a seal’s eye protects the cornea and has nothing to do with weeping. This fluid runs out of the eye because a seal’s tear ducts are different from those of other animals.

[http://www.thewildones.org/Scientists/askPhil.html](http://www.thewildones.org/Scientists/askPhil.html)

> [@](#):
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> The eyes of seals are large, and they don’t have tear ducts and so secretions fall down the face giving them a weeping sort of appearance.