After We Die: The Life and Times of the Human Cadaver

1. When Does a Person Become a Corpse?

11 As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls, to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say, “The breath goes now,” and some say, “No.” John Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” Chapter 1 When Does a Person Become a Corpse? Important consequences hinge on when a person becomes dead, that is, reaches the point at which a moribund human officially qualifies as a corpse. The first impact is upon potential medical or quasi-medical intervenors . Doctors, nurses, and emergency personnel must decide whether to start pounding the flaccid body in an effort to resuscitate a person who is experiencing or has lately experienced cardiac arrest. Pathologists must determine whether the body will be dismantled and minutely examined —that is, whether an autopsy will be performed in order to seek information about the cause of death. (Even with sophisticated diagnostic tools, physicians are often uncertain about the physiological cause of the now-dead person’s demise. An autopsy might provide important information about disease processes leading to better treatments, prevention , or cure of various diseases or conditions.) Medical personnel must also know whether it is permissible to open the inert body surgically and remove tissue for transplantation to desperately ill individuals or to exploit the body for general research and educational benefit. All utilizationsofhumanremainsaresupposedtoawaitanaccuratepronouncement of death. Death also determines when a body can be readied for ultimate disposition . When can a funeral director come and take the body away? When can a death certificate be prepared, and should the county coroner or medical examiner be notified in order to investigate a homicide or a suspicious death? Can the body now be embalmed? Should a memorial service or some other form of commemoration be prepared? Can final disposal of remains occur—whether by burial, cremation, or other means? Can the corpse’s estate—meaning all property belonging to the 12 | When Does a Person Become a Corpse? deceased—be distributed? The determination of death also fixes the legal status of life insurance, Social Security and other survivors’ benefits, personal credit, and marriage. The time of death can even determine the level of crime committed in the context of possible homicide. In People v. Dlugash, Melvin Dlugash fired four small-caliber bullets into Michael Geller after an accomplice, Joe Bush, had fired three large-caliber bullets into Geller.1 Mr. Dlugash, despite having fired a bullet into the victim’s brain, could only be convicted of attempted murder, not murder, because the prosecution could not show that Geller was still alive when Dlugash fired. Recognizing the Permanent Cessation of Breathing Although we all know (or should know) that sooner or later we will become corpses, we do not necessarily know by what criteria that status will be measured. Nor do we know whether the prevailing criteria are dependable. Can we be sure that the determination of death will be made accurately? Can we avoid premature disposal of our bodies? For millennia determination of death was an uncertain task, and live persons were sometimes treated as corpses. The legendary feather in front of the nose or mirror in front of the mouth did not always detect flickering life. John Donne’s poem quoted above reflects the uncertainty of declaring death as late as the nineteenth century: “The breath goes now, and some say ‘no’.” An anonymous Victorian limerick goes: There was a young man at Nunhead Who awoke in his coffin of lead; “It was cozy enough” He remarked in a huff, “But I wasn’t aware I was dead.” During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the United States there were many tales of pallbearers tripping and falling, jarring the coffin , and prompting a vigorous reaction from the occupant. In 1894 Eleanor Markham “died” and her body was being carried to the cemetery in a coffin. A pallbearer sensed movement within the coffin. When the coffin was opened, Eleanor admonished: “My God! You are burying me Recognizing the Permanent Cessation of Breathing | 13 alive!” There were even stories of putative corpses popping the top off their coffins after they had been lowered into a grave. Other nineteenth-century misdiagnoses of death surfaced at the moment of autopsy. In May 1864 an autopsy was scheduled for a New York man who had died suddenly for unexplained reasons. With the first incision the “corpse” sat up and grasped the doctor’s throat. The man recovered fully but the...