[The legal status of a human corpse]

A human corpse presents a number of difficulties, one of which involves difficulties associated with its legal status. A human body, once dead, is considered only as a weight of material, although it signifies continuity of what used to be a living being. A corpse is not an integral part of a human being any more. Legal human rights are only applicable to living humans, and not to a corpse. A fertilized human ovum, a human embryo, a fetus or a separated part of a (live) human body has legal-status problems that are similar to those of a corpse. In Japan, destruction, abandonment or ryotoku (take illegal possession) of a corpse, is forbidden by Japanese Criminal Law #190. This law aims to respect popular religious beliefs, rather than to protect personal rights of a given dead person. Our society needs some other way to provide a dead person with legal protection. Those of us practicing in legal medicine should remind the students in our classroom as well as ourselves of the problems just mentioned. We must always keep in mind that autopsy is exceptionally permitted by law with respect to a corpse for the larger good of society at large.