Ray D. Madoff

This short book covers control of the body/organs after death, control of weath via transfers to relatives and to charity, and control of intellectual property in the form of copyright and the right of publicity. Madoff argues that Americans in particular have given far too much power to the dead hands of the wealthy, both in IP and in distributing their wealth, subsidizing transfers to heirs or charities that might not do much to serve the overall social interest. He would prefer a more Jeffersonian approach denying that the dead have enforceable interests. I’m sympathetic, but the part of the book about actual dead bodies isn’t particularly connected to the thesis—perhaps because everyone, rich or poor, leaves behind a body (cryogenics notwithstanding) and thus the law of dead bodies hasn’t been so much subjected to the distortions that are really about wealth and only secondarily about its perpetuation across generations.… (mehr)