Posthumous interests
Subtitle: legal and philosophical examination in the medical context
By: by Daniel Sperling.
Published: 2006
Language: eng
Number of pages: 408
ISBN-13: 9780494219065
Subjects: University of Toronto. -- Faculty of Law -- Dissertations.; Dead -- Legal status, laws, etc.; Dead bodies (Law).; Inheritance and succession.; Decedents' estates.
Description: I conclude my thesis by arguing that if we acknowledge the interest in one's symbolic existence and if we legally protect it, we should enjoy the power to shape our symbolic existence and that such power should have peremptory legal status. Hence, any interference with the way we choose to dispose of our body after death, subjecting our bodies to the proprietary interest of another or disclosing sensitive information regarding our health condition after death diminishes our symbolic existence and may prima facie  constitute legal harm.In my thesis, I explore the legal status of posthumous interests, namely interests whose application or fulfillment occurs after a person's death. I am specifically concerned with three categories of interests arising in the medico-legal context: the proprietary interest in the body of the deceased, the testamentary interest in determining the disposal of one's body after death and the interest in postmortem medical confidentiality.Having established the possibility of posthumous harm, I turn to examine the representation of posthumous interests in three areas of law: property law, law of wills and testaments and privacy law. My legal analysis reveals that on a theoretical level, the traditional legal theories cannot entirely accommodate the legal disputes arising in the postmortem situations. It also raises the difficulties inherent in these different areas of law concerning the categorization of the legal dilemmas at stake and the framing of conflicting values arising out of these disputes.In my thesis, I explore these difficulties, arguing for a unified concept of a human interest the protection of which explains but also justifies the legal solutions to the problems raised under these situations. This interest, which I call the interest in the recognition of one's symbolic existence , refers to a second order existence of the human being usually taking place in the minds, thoughts and language of other existing creatures or in the actions, possessions and alike of the person whose interest in symbolic existence it is.I begin my analysis with the exploration of the problems I identify in the postmortem context. These problems raise the question of whether the dead have interests or rights the defeat of which may constitute harm, and if so, who is the subject being harmed, what does posthumous harm consist of, and when does posthumous harm occur, if at all.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-01, Section: A, page: 0326.

Thesis (S.J.D.)-University of Toronto, 2006.

Includes bibliographical references.

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