The Law and the Dead

Conway, Heather

doi:10.4324/9781315867656

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…There are common law obligations to dispose of a human corpse appropriately (Sperling, D, 2008). A corpse must be buried, or, in England and Wales, cremated under the Cremation Act 1902, or it can be preserved in specific circumstances (Conway, 2016). Esther's son was born alive after placental abruption, and when he died, midwives explained the legal options:…”

Section: 'Human Corpse': Classifying the Live-born Or Post-24 Week Foetal Bodymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Esther and her husband bore the legal responsibility of disposing of their son's body, as do all parents whose registered child dies, including stillborn babies (Conway, 2016;HTA, 2015). The outcome for their son, of having a separate gravesite in a general cemetery, aligned his death with other deaths through the disposal of his corpse.…”

Section: 'Human Corpse': Classifying the Live-born Or Post-24 Week Foetal Bodymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In relation to disposal responsibility, there is some flexibility in English law about who this falls upon, except in the case of parents. In common law, parents are responsible for the disposal of the body of a dead child (Conway, 2016), unless they do not have the means to carry out disposal, in which case the local authority may be responsible under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984. This applies to all registered children, including live-born, stillborn and post-viability foetal deaths caused by termination.…”

Section: The Corpse Of a Child And The Obligations And Entitlements Of Parental Kinmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pregnancy remains, infant remains, or the corpse of a child? The incoherent governance of the dead foetal body in England

Middlemiss

2020

Mortality

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In English law, the conventional view is that human personhood is produced by live birth, kinship is produced by relations between persons, and corpses are produced on the death of persons, which are then buried or cremated. Beings produced by human pregnancy which do not fit these discursive categories are classified as 'pregnancy remains', have no personhood or kinship, and their disposal is regulated as human tissue. However, this paper argues that the governance of the dead, born, foetal body in England, in fact, produces forms of foetal personhood, through the regulation of the material dead bodies of foetuses and babies. Furthermore, the assignment of responsibility for disposal and post-mortem decisions to kin of the dead foetal being also produces a relational form of foetal personhood. The examination of second-trimester pregnancy loss in England through fieldwork with women who have experienced foetal death, premature labour, and termination for foetal anomaly before 24 weeks' gestation reveals how governance of the dead, born, foetal body in England is incoherent.It also illustrates the effects of this incoherence on parental choices about the range of actions available after pregnancy loss in relation to the material body of the foetal being or baby.

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Section: 'Human Corpse': Classifying the Live-born Or Post-24 Week Foetal Bodymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 'Human Corpse': Classifying the Live-born Or Post-24 Week Foetal Bodymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Corpse Of a Child And The Obligations And Entitlements Of Parental Kinmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pregnancy remains, infant remains, or the corpse of a child? The incoherent governance of the dead foetal body in England

Middlemiss

2020

Mortality

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“…Underpinning this dilemma is a tension between two things. The first is that there is a social requirement and expectation that the remains of the dead will be treated with respect and care (Conway, 2016). Yet, funeral directors are human beings with value judgements, and are under no obligation to provide this care and chose not to.…”

Section: Funeral Directing and The Difficult Deadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hidden labour in funeral directing: providing care to ‘difficult’ dead bodies

Robins

Smith

2020

Mortality

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“…Skeggs’ (2011) adoption of anthropological approaches to understanding personhood led her to assert it as ‘legal, social, and moral states generated through encounters with others’ (p. 498), meaning person value is attached to different conceptualisations and practices of personhood. However, when a person dies, their personhood and value change – particularly as a dead body is no longer ‘human’ or protected as such by the law as they would be when alive (see Conway, 2016). This change in status and identity does not affect celebrity value in terms of symbolism or economics, but it does change who controls and possesses the value of the dead celebrity.…”

Section: Person Value Celebrity and Bodily Capitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Value, Bodily Capital, and Gender Inequality after Death

Penfold-Mounce

2019

Sociological Research Online

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This article examines dead celebrities’ posthumous careers and considers how gendered inequalities around possession, value, and bodily capital are produced and consumed even after death. The concept of capital plays a significant role in studies of culture, usually in relation to individual possession and personal, social, and material advantage. ‘Bodily capital’ sheds particular light upon the different ways bodies can possess value and how the generation of value is unequally distributed for men and women. Through an analysis of the Forbes Magazine Top Dead Earning Celebrities List (2001–2018), the inequality of value between men and women generated from bodily capital is examined. This article extends the intellectual agenda of sociological research on gendered inequality in bodily capital through dead celebrity posthumous careers. It reveals how, why, and when value is generated unequally with celebrity women’s bodily capital becoming a symbolic resource for others to generate profit. Furthermore, it speculates upon the prospect of a revolution in the ownership and value of gendered bodily capital among dead celebrities and predicts a future shift for women’s bodily capital and value after death.

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The Law and the Dead

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Pregnancy remains, infant remains, or the corpse of a child? The incoherent governance of the dead foetal body in England

Pregnancy remains, infant remains, or the corpse of a child? The incoherent governance of the dead foetal body in England

Hidden labour in funeral directing: providing care to ‘difficult’ dead bodies

Value, Bodily Capital, and Gender Inequality after Death

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