Commonwealth v. Spector

BERNSTEIN, J.,

Soon after one picks up man’s trail in the earliest campfire or chipped stone tool one finds evidence of interests and, anxieties that have no animal counterpart; in particular, a ceremonious concern for the dead, manifested in their deliberate burial — with growing evidence of pious apprehension and dread.1

Whether one believes an immortal soul inhabits the body as its holy vessel on earth or only ascribes to a humanistic belief in every individual’s right to determine the disposition of his or her remains after death, the crime of dismemberment, theft, and sale of a human body…