ABSTRACT
There are many ethical and legal issues that are often overlooked when confronted with the death of a loved one. Legal issues affected by death include ownership of the remains of the deceased, the decision for conducting an autopsy, the distribution of the deceased’s property (execution and probate of the will), implementing plans for the disposal of the body, qualifications of grief support personnel, and the inclusion of bereavement leave within the legal structure of society. However, as Shah and Miller (2010) write, for the most part, “legal consequences of death do not require determining the moment of death with precision. None of these consequences depend on determining death within a matter of minutes or seconds. It is only when death became a prerequisite for vital organ donation that it began to matter exactly when a person died” (p. 542).
