In Re: Remains of Chester Howard West

In this case, we confront the question of whether a person with honorable intentions but absolutely no personal connection to or familial relationship with a deceased person has a unilateral right to remove the deceased’s remains, contrary to both the wishes of his widow and his remaining kin. The majority permits this result in the face of such familial objection ostensibly because it agrees that a stranger to the deceased will provide a resting place more befitting the deceased than his family.

An American hero, First Sergeant Chester Howard West (hereinafter “Sgt. West”) was the recipient…