ABSTRACT
Death is unique. It is unlike aught else in its certainty and its incidents. A
corpse in some respects is the strangest thing on earth. A man but yesterday
breathed and thought and walked among us has passed away. Something has
gone. The body is left still and cold, and is all that is visible to mortal eye of the
man we knew. Around it cling love and memory. Beyond it may reach hope. It
must be laid away. And the law-that rule of action which touches all human
things-must touch also this thing of death. It is not surprising that the law
relating to this mystery of what death leaves behind cannot be precisely brought
within the letter of all the rules regarding corn, lumber, and pig iron. And yet
the body must be buried or disposed of. If buried, it must be carried to the place
of burial. And the law, in its all-sufficiency, must furnish some rule, by
legislative enactment or analogy, or based on some sound legal principle, by
which to determine between the living questions of the disposition of the dead
and the rights surrounding their bodies.
