Why do people dig up old grave sites for the name of Science??

Question

I think that once you are layed to rest you should stay undisturbed. Who gives anyone the right to dig somebody up.....The person buried should have the final say. Anyone agree or disagree. Can anyone explain why we have to find out about everything.

Answer 1

Makes sense to me!

Answer 2

Beacuse we can learn alot by doing so.

Burial customs tell us much about an old, far-away or defunct culture- dress, religion, items buried with the body, relationships, gender/societal roles, etc.

And we can learn about the health and physical characteristics of an individual (why did he/she die, any strange maladies, genetics) or of a group/culture.

In this day of intolerance and lack of interest/curiosity about how other people live, don't you think it makes sense to employ every method we can to find out about others?

We bury the dead and have funerary rituals more for the benefit of those still living than the dead person. While many religions prescribe funeral rituals, prayers, etc, once the prayers are said and the body buried, that soul is commended to heaven or wherever, and the body left to decompose. Anything after that is more for the benefit of loved ones trying to heal.

Since, as above, most post-death rituals are more for the benefit of the living, it is in poor taste for an outside entity to exhume for research within a generation or two (those who remember the deceased) without the request and assent of those survivors.

Besides, the person is dead, so their consent is not so easy to obtain.

Answer 3

American culture is one that is very objective, quasi-atheistic, protestant, and so forth. For example, Native people bury with prayers and songs and then the deceased is dedicated to the care of the Creator. So we think it is heretical to dig up ancestors or any ones ancestors. Other reasons as Vine Deloria Jr. stated is that Americans are in a foreign land and have no identity, try to recreate them self in the archaeological record. Look at the Mound Hoax and the Fremont culture in Mormon Utah. Look at the Kennewick Man hoax, also Karl Jung stated that Americans will never be able to deal with their subconscious guilt of the way America was colonialized and mass murder was committed, until they them self become Indians.

Answer 4

We would know absoultely nothing about acient culture if it weren't for digging up old grave sites. I would much rather be dug up in the name of science as opposed to having my headstone moved and being paved over as a new road (which happens too). We have made many amazing and reavealing discoveries from the dead. It was early psysicians experience with dead bodies that lead to the knowledge of spreading germs through hand contact. Without such curiosity in the world we would be robbed of many advances that have led us to lead longer and healthier lives.

Answer 5

Although I agree with you that graves should be left undisturbed, I think that once we are dead, we are dead. Our spirit isn't in our body but there should be a certain respect for the person that had died.

Answer 6

i think that digging up old graves is taboo,i steer clear of that crap