The Right to the Corpse as an Extension of the Right to the Body: The Preservation of the Will on the Fate of the Dead Body for Cryogenic Purposes. Comments on Special Appeal Nº. 1.693.718/RJ

Abstract

This study proposes to discuss the right to the corpse, as an extension of the right to the body, from the interpretative parameters of Special Appeal (REsp) Nº. 1.693.718/RJ, judged in 2019. To this extent, the problem focuses on the preservation of the last will disposition of the deceased in line with his freedom to dispose of his own body post-mortem even if it contradicts, as a rule, the interests of legal successors who seek a different destination for the medically dead body. In consonance with the judgment, the starting point is the advances of biotechnoscience in matters of preservation of the body through cryonics, popularly known as "cryogenics", in conjunction with the manifests of transhumanist aspirations. The reasoning methodology used was the analytical-deductive one, based on national and international bibliographic research.