Does the Decedent have Rights?

Does the  Decedent have Rights?

 Many legal rules suggest that the dead do not have rights. Often, the dead cannot marry,1 divorce, or vote. The executor of an estate cannot sue for the libel or slander of a deceased person. And the right to medical privacy substantially erodes at death, allowing family members to obtain sensitive information about a decedent’s medical conditions. On the other hand, various legal institutions have spent considerable time trying to protect the rights of the dead. As a result, most testamentary distributions, burial requests, and organ donation designations are valid even if they contradict the preferences of the living. Certain destructions of the property requested in wills are honored even though they may hurt the living. Some states even statutorily recognize a posthumous right of publicity, and recent case law suggests there may be a posthumous right to reproductive autonomy. This Article asks why the law gives decedents certain legal rights but not others. While many legal rules favoring the dead may be explained simply as an attempt to control the behaviors of living persons, such an explanation is incomplete because it ignores cultural norms, including an innate desire among the living to honor the wishes of the dead even when those wishes negatively impact their own interests. The fact that courts and legislatures often use “rights” language when creating legal rules that benefit decedents’ interests suggests that the desire to honor the wishes of the dead does not spring solely out of a self-interested desire to have one’s own wishes honored at death. The use of this language would be unnecessary if the true goal of a proposed legal rule is to ultimately control the actions of the living. While it is not unreasonable to think that courts sometimes use the wrong language in opinions, judges consistently use rights talk in cases involving benefits and harms to decedents. Consistent use of rights language, therefore, suggests that a series of social and cultural norms guide judges and legislatures to honor and respect the dead, particularly where the concomitant harms to the living are minimal. This Article argues that while legal rules affecting the dead often have a practical aspect, one of the primary, and yet unrecognized, forces driving the creation of these legal rules are cultural norms, including dignity and respect for decedents’ wishes. In reaching this conclusion, this Article adopts an Interest Theory approach to rights. Interest Theory recognizes persons currently incapable of making choices, such as the mentally incapacitated and infants, as potential right-holders.2 Using Interest Theory, this Article argues that the dead, although unable to make real-time choices, are capable of being legal right-holders. Furthermore, certain interests, such as the interest in seeing one’s offspring survive or the interest in one’s reputation, can survive death. When these interests are protected by legal rules, the dead are granted de facto legal rights that can be enforced against the living. While it is true that only a subset of interests may survive death, and even a smaller subset receive legal protection, death does not necessarily cut off all interests, and consequently, it does not end all legal rights. Recognition of posthumous legal rights gives the dead significant moral standing within our legal system, as would be expected if lawmakers are driven by a desire to treat the dead with dignity. The law also strives to honor a decedent’s wishes and to protect his interests because society has chosen, within limits, to adhere to the principle of autonomy. This is why courts often consider a decedent’s wishes when determining the disposition of his corpse or property.3 Of course there are legal limits to autonomy, even for the living, and the law is constantly struggling with the exact boundaries of these limits. With the dead, autonomy is more limited than with the living, both because no individual can speak out contemporaneously about the decedent’s desires and because the ability to make choices and change preferences dies with the decedent.

https://law.hofstra.edu/pdf/academics/journals/lawreview/lrv_issues_v37n03_cc4_smolensky_final.pdf

From Tragedy to Advocacy The Fight for Change in NJ Transit and Coach USA

 From Tragedy to Advocacy{-The Fight for Change in NJ                                 Transit and Coach USA

Naomi Johnson (born September 30, 1976) is an American broadcaster, media personality, businesswoman, poet, blogger, and activist. She attended Ramapo University, Essex County College, Jersey City University, Oxford Seminar, Northwestern University, Ashford University, Thomas Edison Corresponded College, and Bloomfield College. This talented talk show host had earned an Associated Degree in Early Childhood Education, and a Bachelor of Art. Degree in Elementary Education, and six credits towards her Master's degree in Teaching with Technology.  In 2012, Naomi's only child Deshon was murdered purposely by Coach USA bus drivers who accelerate the bus and then jumped the curb aiming at the bus towards her son. He was killed by being mowed down in vain by a Coach USA deadly bus driver using an NJ Transit bus as his choice of weapon to kill Naomi's son. While initially, Bloomfield, New Jersey officers did not inform Johnson's family of their loved one's killer that person was not charged because the case was botched up by Coach USA attorney Michael Lugger and Essex County Prosecutor Mike Lugar blaming the talk show host son for his deaths then rule it as an accident.  The author is an advocate for the “No More Lives Lost Campaign – Hold NJ Transit and Coach USA Accountable for Killing Pedestrians”.

 

Poem by Naomi Johnson: I Miss You, Son

  I Miss You, Son

You are a special gift in my life that 

brought joy into my world

that you engraved into my heart a lasting swirl.

 Accompanying heartfelt emotion

 of forever devotion.

From large to small

you are my greatest gift of all.

You were so refined and divine

that God chose you to be all mine.

With full of love to embrace

and an abundant grace

that shines upon your face.

You are a special son I can’t replace.

My aching heart is tearing me down

I wish you were around.

I am here all alone on this earth 

combating feelings of 

perplexity which has crossbirth 

into my mind.

Praying that it will soon be declined. 

But I know my grieving will forever

 go high and low.

I miss you, son,

your special glow

and your loving touch.

Oh, I love you all so much.

 By Naomi Johnson

 June13, 2023 

Revised on

June 15,  2023

Emotional Frequency Scale

Emotional  Frequency Scale

Poem: To All of My Grieving Mothers

 

Poem

 To All of My Grieving Mothers

 

This beautiful poem is by the author Naomi Johnsons for all grieving mothers. It has been said by the masses that a parent or parents should not have to bury a child. A child should be buried with the parents or parents.  The transit agency, police, prosecutors’ spokespersons, attorneys, judges, and governor need to stop calling these deaths accidents because the Washington DC Department of Transportation has on its records that the correct term is crashes. These are human lives that the family members can never get back and can’t get an opportunity to correct the mistake!

TO ALL OF MY GRIEVING MOTHERS

WHO ARE FIGHTING A BATTLE THAT MOST PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND,

HOW WE ARE UNABLE TO PAINFULLY WITHSTAND

THE TRANSFORMATION OF OUR CHILDREN’S MISERY HAD DESTROYED US IN EVERY

CAPACITY AS WE STOOD BY AND CRIED.

I KNOW WE ALL FELT LIKE WE HAD DIED TOO,

AND THEY JUST FORGOT TO BURRY US WITH THE

TEARS RUN DOWN OUR EYES FEELING BLUE.

WE WITNESS THEM LAYING OUR CHILDREN TO REST

AS THE PAIN OF OUR CHILDREN'S DEATH IS BURIED DEEP INTO OUR CHESTS.

THE GREATEST LOSS WE SUFFER IS LOSING A CHILD, WHICH IS TRUE;

OTHERS WHO HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED OUR JOURNEY HAVE NO CLUE.

TO WHAT WE ARE GOING THROUGH.

OR HOW OUR PAIN OF MISSING OUR CHILDREN HAS PAINFULLY GROWN,

OUR LIFE OF NO MORALITY HAS EVOLVED INTO EVER-LASTING PAIN

FROM THE LOSS WE HAVE SADLY GAINED.

PEOPLE CAN NOT COMPREHEND THE NEW NORMALITY FOR THE US KNOWING

WE WOULD NEVER GET OVER THE LOSS WE FACE

SINCE OUR CHILDREN ARE NO LONGER HERE FOR US TO EMBRACE.

WE WOULD NEVER OVERCOME OUR LOSS, NOT IN A DAY, AN ETERNITY, OR A MILLION

YEARS.

WHILE MENTAL INSANITY SLOWLY INTERFERES.

NO MATTER HOW HARD WE TRY TO KEEP OUR AGONY AT BAY

AND FORCE OUR EYES TO STOP OUR TEARS FROM BEING ON DISPLAY.

THUS, OUR LOSS DOESN’T JUST CHANGE US. IT ANNIHILATES US

WITH AN EMOTIONALLY THRUST.

FOR THE REST OF OUR LIFE WITH ANOTHER LEVEL

OF INNER LONELINESS INVADE OUR HEART

 AND DEPRESSION QUICKLY TRAVELED THROUGHOUT OUR

 BODY TO SLOWLY TEAR US APART.

 

 BY NAOMI JOHNSON ©

DECEMBER 7,2016

FROM ONE GR IEVING MOTHER TO ANOTHER