• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.199-239
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• 2010

In 2008, the Korean Supreme Court came across a plaintiff's claim to return his deceased father who had left family more than four decades ago and lived with another spouse(de facto) in the meantime to be buried after death in a cemetery of his own choice. The major opinion decided to approve the claim, on the ground that the first legitimate son should be the "head worshiper" prescribed in the article 1008-3 of the Korean Civil Code and that the corpse belong to the head woshiper, i. e. the head woshiper has a special "limited ownership" over the corpse for the purpose of its burial and worship, adding that a deceased's disposition inter vivos, if any, be only ethically but by no means legally binding others, including the head worshiper of course. Here scrutinized are the historical developments starting from the Roman criminal law of sepulchri violatio(trespass to grave) through the Canon law of the Middle Age and the doctrinal reactions to the challenges of anatomy and surgery to the formation of the "supporting the deceased" theory in Germany as well as the similarities in other european continental countries(Switzerland, Austria and France). The comparative review shows that the right of remaining family could neither be identified as limited "ownership" nor that the controversy over a corpse be solved by exclusively attributing/distributing it to one/some of the descendants. In principle, the question should be approached in the extension of family support.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.170-179
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• 2023

Starvation, diabetes, alcoholism and hypothermia cause ketoacidosis in the human body; therefore, the cause of death can be determined by analyzing ketone bodies in the blood of the deceased. In the case of decomposition of the cadaver, however, since collecting intact blood is impossible, ketone body analysis is performed using the spleen. However, the index for diagnosing ketoacidosis is based on blood concentration, and its correlation with ketone bodies present in the spleen remains unknown. In particular, since decomposition proceeds rapidly during summer, when temperature and humidity are high, understanding the correlation between ketone bodies in the blood and spleen is important to estimate the state at the time of death from a decaying body. Therefore, in the present study, the correlation between ketone bodies in the blood and spleen of the deceased was explored. Ketone bodies (beta-hydroxybutyric acid [BHB] and acetone) in the blood and spleen were analyzed and compared from autopsies (>100 mg·L^-1 BHB, blood basis) conducted at the Daejeon Forensic Research Institute from June to December 2021. Moreover, the concentration of ketone bodies in the spleen juice and tissues was compared assuming the scenario of extreme decomposition. Ketone retention concentration in the blood and spleen was positively correlated, and the ratio of BHB concentration in the spleen to BHB concentration in the blood ranged from 0.52 to 1.08 (mean = 0.85 ± 0.12), although the ratio may vary depending on the degree of decomposition of the corpse.