I’ve blogged a few times about whether the dead have any privacy rights and whether their families have any rights. To those who still believe that the dead have no privacy nor need any, I would remind them to think of the pain privacy violations can cause the surviving family members.
As one example, in the past month, I’ve read about two cases where adults stole the identities of dead children. I cannot imagine how the parents of the dead children felt when years later, they learn that someone had been using their child’s name and identity. I think I would feel terribly violated and wounded.
Now today, I see another example where lack of respect for the privacy of the dead — intentional or unintentional — can cause emotional pain and anguish to the living:
Belfast City Council has apologised after a sensitive document was used as a sign in a public toilet at one of its cemeteries.
A healthcare worker, who did not wish to be identified, handed over the document to the Belfast Telegraph after finding it taped to a wall in a loo at Roselawn Cemetery, where City of Belfast Crematorium is situated.
The file was a cremation order for Mr James Renwick, whose funeral service took place in June 2009. Mr Renwick’s wife Hannah said she was appalled at the |blunder.
[…]
“I turned the paper over and it was a cremation order, with someone’s personal details, name, address and age.
[…]
The document contained Mr Renwick’s address, age, occupation, cause and place of death as well as his church denomination and the type of music used in his funeral service.
If you were a relative of the late Mr. Renwick, how would you feel learning that this was posted on a toilet wall to use as a sign?
Source: Belfast Telegraph