The Right of the Deceased

The qualification of the dead human body seems legally established: the cadaver is not, from a judiciary point of view, a person but an object, or rather, in some jurisdictions, a commodity. However, this qualification is not without ambiguities, so much so that some authors are not comfortable when it comes to qualifying a corpse. Indeed, this qualification is not entirely satisfactory, due to the gap between the perception of the relatives of the defunct, who will tend to focus on the person, although dead, and the qualification relevant for the law, which tends to reify the dead body. However, the qualification of “person” is not adequate in its present state. We therefore propose to consider the dead human body, not as a thing but as a deceased person, that would be in the custody of the Nation, creating within the category of persons a sub-distinction between living persons and decedents. This qualification would notably apply to corpses the protection attached to the dignity of the human person, without having to distort the concept.