The dignity of the dead and the bereaved

At some point in higher education careers, students undertaking degree courses in the humanities or social sciences will inevitably encounter some aspect of what can be considered as human rights research.

In history, they will almost certainly discuss the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the Nazi Holocaust and the Stalin purges. In criminology they will analyse the death penalty and the death-row phenomenon. In media studies they will be introduced to aspects of censorship.

In psychology they are generally asked to examine the making of a torturer and a criminal. In anthropology, many lecturers offer sessions on female genital mutilation. Philosophy students dedicate time to understanding ethics and moral behaviour, while law students are accustomed to in-depth studies of international conventions dealing with human rights.

Nowadays, in many states, there is a growing trend to broaden the meaning and purview of human rights. Some states are seriously considering whether to accord human rights status to corporations, for example. Others are attempting to stretch third-generation rights to the limit of contemplating a right to peace and a right to development.

Generally, however, the issue of human dignity is constantly emphasised. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) believed that human dignity and values are innate properties, which are validated according to natural law. Human dignity can be broadly defined as the particular cultural understandings of the inner moral worth of the human person, and his or her proper political relations with society.

Many indigenous groups are making claims for the recognition of their collective dignity, in the acknowledgment of the value of their collective way of life as opposed to the way of life of the dominant society into which they are unequally integrated.

To a large extent human dignity is not private, individual or autonomous. It is public, collective and prescribed by social norms. An analysis of dignity may be got from the Latin dignitas, translated as "worth" (valeur in French). One lexical meaning of dignity is thus "intrinsic worth".

What is meant by intrinsic worth is suggested by the Kantian injunction to treat every human being as an end, not a means. Respect for the intrinsic worth of every person should mean that individuals are not to be perceived or treated merely as instruments or objects of the will of others.

The general idea that human rights are derived from the dignity of the person has two corollaries:

1. basic rights are not given by authority and therefore may not be taken away; and

2. such rights are rights of the person, of every person.

The term "human dignity" appears in the Helsinki Accords in Principle VII, in the UN Charter's Preamble and in Article 1 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

It fails to state, however, when these rights and this dignity cease to exist. This is partly why certain states are moving in the direction of protecting further the rights of dead people and of their close relatives.

To this extent, one can conceive of human rights not only as pertaining to a viable individual or to a foetus, an embryo, but also to dead people, especially before their burial. It is thus appropriate to spend a few thoughts on this, especially now in the month of November.

In almost every culture, the death of an individual represents a breach of the social fabric, a potentially dangerous event that could threaten the well-being of the living.

The mourning rites and burial procedures that surround death vary greatly from one culture to another, but in general they work to minimise the danger to those left behind and to reintegrate the bereaved into society.

Although in the West a sudden, unanticipated death, at least for the elderly, is often seen as a "good way to go", in most other societies the death for which one is unprepared is viewed with immense horror.

Thus, for example, for the pious Hindu the good death is one to which the individual voluntarily submits himself or herself. Among the Dinka of southern Sudan, the ideal death for an aging spear master (a religious leader of the tribe) is to preside over his own burial when still alive.

This robs death of its arbitrary power, and enhances the fertility and prosperity of the community. This illustrates the widespread association between ideas of death and fertility.

The mortuary rituals of many societies are pervaded by the symbolism of sexuality and birth, and clearly entail a view of death as a source of life. Whereas in Europe, cremation is simply an efficient method of corpse disposal, in Bali it is the method by which the soul is freed from the body, enabling it to be reborn.

The first thing relating to the dignity of the dead that comes to mind is the short period that dead persons spend in the mortuary at St Luke's Hospital before the funeral and subsequent burial.

For most people who have had to live through it, our only mortuary here in Malta is a shocking experience. The place is dirty; no curtain subdivides the exposed bodies; and the air-conditioning system does not work efficiently.

These shortcomings translate into a lack of respect to the bereaved, the funeral undertakers, the pathologists and any other persons connected to the sad process of burying the bodies. It makes a mockery of the dead and increases the trauma of the bereaved.

Besides an apparent lack of control at the main door of the mortuary, enabling most people frequently to obtain free, unencumbered access, a person entering the rooms which constitute our only mortuary is not guided and led towards his deceased relative or friend.

Inevitably, the chance a person in bereavement stands to see his/her loved one is to look up which body is which. He/she may have to see also other disturbing scenes and other dead bodies.

It gets even worse when a close relative realises that his/her loved one has become the subject of public debate and exhibition. It is not the first time that people who have lost their son or brother in a fatal car accident while drink-driving find that he is being watched by other drink-drivers who attempt to stop drink-driving by tangibly experiencing its physical effects on an individual.

The same happens when a youngster dies from a drug overdose. A number of drug addicts, who don't even know the deceased, are brought to the place as a form of inducement to stop using drugs. And so on.

It might be a thrill for those who are not mourning the dead person, but an added trauma for those who are. All this obviously does not help to alleviate the pain of the bereaved.

This is certainly a field where a lot can still be done in our country, especially now that a new hospital is being built. It is noticeable that, some time or other, we are all bound to pass through the horrible experience of bereavement, so it is in the interest of all to ensure that the competent authorities, start respecting the dignity of the deceased individual and of his/her loved ones. One notices that in other Catholic states this does not happen. The same may be said of other religions wherein the dead are afforded more respect.

Human dignity does not stop with death. It carries on until the body is laid to rest according to the norms or customs considered dignified by various rites of different religions. It is therefore evident that if these rites are not followed, the dignity of the human person is breached.

Many examples come to mind, but the glaring ones are mass graves where naked corpses are literally thrown down a large hole in the ground on top of each other, as if rubbish is being disposed of. The German mass killings at concentration camps like Dachau during World War II are still fresh in people's minds.

Unfortunately it was only during the last century that the dignity of the dead has reached a certain level of respect. The Balkan wars of the Nineties have left their scars. The diverse cultures and burying rituals of the various ethnic groups in the region are still fresh in our minds.

We can only imagine how corpses were treated in the Middle Ages when wars were won and lost, and pillage was the order of the day. Was there respect for the dead in Caesar's conquests? Is this the reason for the proliferation of Christina catacombs, where the dead were revered to the extent that they were ritualised as being alive?

In Malta we still have various catacombs to remind us of the horrors of times past. Or are we oblivious to their presence? What about the later Inquisitions of the Catholic Church, and the prohibitions of burials in Catholic cemeteries?

Unfortunately it seems that in the third millennium humankind has failed to build a legal framework for the disposal of the human body until its resting place. One must start the discussion, which will eventually lead to norms of behaviour from the moment a person dies, until s/he is laid to rest for ever.

Rules for exhumation ought to be more stringent out of respect to the bereaved as well. There are other points to ponder. What are the rights of the dead when these are buried in ships on the ocean floor? Should we meddle with their resting place, or is their right to a proper burial a right that we are still not in a position to appreciate or recognise.

The international community, perhaps, under the auspices of the UN, ought to take this matter up by establishing a workable legal framework that may be applied to respect the dead and their rights in all the diverse societies and cultures in the world. Let us at least start with raising an awareness of the problem by shouting out a human sign, which the dead community cannot emulate.