Would someone please give me the relevent answer and not their opinion. Thank you.?
This is the question and details I gave but in response all I got was peoples opinion.
1) Legal authority seeking re: rights conferred to next of kin in respect to wills persons body?
2) Question: Can anyone direct me to a legal authority that either took away the right for the person making his/her own will to have the ultrimate say on the means of disposal (burial/cremation) of hes/her body or the legal authority that gave the fundamental right to the next of kin to have the ultrimate right to deside the means of disposal of the will persons body?
In essense, I am seeking the "legal authority". Are you aware of the legal authority and if so will you please tell me what court case conferred the right for the next of kin to have the ultrimate say on the means of disposal of a will makers body.
And, by the way. in response to those who gave the answers that one could nominate a lawyer, executive, make the body part of the estate - does not answer my question!
Answers:
You don't mention what jurisdiction you're in, so it's hard to give you the most relevant information. In the United States, each state has laws that confer the ability of the legal next of kin to control the final disposition of a body once the person has died. In California, the order is as follows:
1. An agent under a power of attorney for health care who has the right and duty of disposition under Division 4.7 (commencing with Section 4600) of the Probate Code
2. The competent surviving spouse.
3. The sole surviving competent adult child of the decedent, or
if there is more than one competent adult child of the decedent, the majority of the surviving competent adult children.
4. The surviving competent parent or parents of the decedent.
5. The sole surviving competent adult sibling of the decedent, or if there is more than one surviving competent adult sibling of the decedent, the majority of the surviving competent adult siblings.
6. The surviving competent adult person or persons respectively in the next degrees of kinship, or if there is more than one surviving competent adult person of the same degree of kinship, the majority of those persons.
7. The public administrator when the deceased has sufficient
assets.
In addition, if the person him/herself makes a statement as to their wishes of how they be disposed, that must be followed, unless that person's estate cannot pay for said disposition. If the estate does not have sufficient funds, the legal next of kin can make any decisions he/she wishes.
I think the contract of a "power of attorney" can do that but i'm not sure.
Also your question is very poorly phrased, please try to narrow down what you are asking about - it might make for better answers. (You whole question is a run on sentence)
Theres nothing I like better than a person who needs a lawyer or a doctor and asks Yahoo instead.
And then complains.
GO ASK A LAWYER FROM YOUR STATE.
Get a lawyer. You're asking regular joes and josephines on a deep legal question. What did you expect?
Good answer, justagrandma.
This isn't real legal advice! The best answer anyone can give you is to find one, because if you do it wrong, it will permanently screw up your stuff more than it is already!
You also can't get relevant information without many, many more details, including the jurisdiction you're in, and what specific rights you're talking about. If you ask in generalizations, that's what you'll get in answers as well. (BTW, that's also what lawyers do.)
EXCUSE ME, but freelawanswer.com is a public forum that's open to professionals, laymen, and everybody else anywhere in the world who wants to post their opinions. You want guaranteed legal information? Then crack open your checkbook and hire a lawyer. Our advice is free, and it's worth every penny.
Suggestion: One should always respect the wishes of the deceased and dispose of the body as he/she requested, unless the procedure is exorbitantly expensive and the deceased failed to leave behind enough funds for it. But of course, that's just my opinion.
You have several choices.
You can post questions on freelawanswer.com , and get answers by people who may or may not know anything about the topic, and can be in age anywhere from barely able to communicate to any age.
You can spend the money to get the correct answer from appropriate legal authority.
You can go to a public library, go to the reference section, find the law books, and spend many hours of many weekends looking it up yourslef.
You can use a search engine, and learn how to tell the difference between answers from ahthorities and answers from people who might not be any better than what you get on freelawanswer.com .
Soetimes when someone dies, the identity is not known, let alone who is next of kin
http://www.wbaltv.com/11investigates/543...
Depending on suspected foul play in the death of a body, the next of kin might be suspects
http://www.sciencecare.com/faq.htm...
Let's suppose a body, before death, made arrangements for something to happen, irrespective of what the next of kin might want. Of course depending on who is arround at time of death, they may or may not know about this kind of pre-arrangement.
http://www.clevelandclinic.org/education...
Here's a form that might be wise to fill out before the body is dead, to give next of kin certain legal authority to carry out wishes of the body, expressed before the body got dead.
http://www.cryonics.org/documents/next_o...
The answers post by the user, for information only, FreeLawAnswer.com does not guarantee the right.
Answer question:
More Law Questions and Answers: