Miscellaneous

Right then -- carry on abusing dead bodies

Back in 2004, an 88-year-old gal died in a Michigan nursing home. Three classy nurse's aids were supposed to prepare the body to be moved to a funeral home. While doing so, they decided to fuck around with the body, posing it, taking photos, etc. Other employees found out and told the folks in charge, and the three nurses were fired and eventually charged criminally under a state law forbidding the physical mistreatment of a patient.

A state appeals court has now thrown the case out because the law defines a "patient" as a "person," and a corpse isn't a "person" under the law. Makes sense, and is certainly the right interpretation under the law, but seems kinda ridiculous that the nurses can go on and putz around with corpses nily-wily. The state legislative body might want to get on that, you know?

On the plus side, it means you can still pull the Weekend at Bernies game in Michigan, which is pretty fantastic.

Full post as published by Quiz Law on September 04, 2008 (boomark / email).