But, putting doctrine aside, don't you find these cases alarming? Many religions -- Navajo Indians, the Hmong, Orthodox Jews, etc. -- object to autopsies. Some believe that they threaten the very souls of the deceased. Forcing autopsies on them is one of the worst burdens imaginable -- it would be like forcing cremation on Christians who believe their physical bodies are necessary for any later resurrection. (Since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has slowly eased up on its prohibition of cremation, although the Greek Orthodox Church still vigilantly adheres to it.) And in the prisoner-autopsy context -- where death row inmates are suing to stop their own bodies from being autopsied after death -- these extreme burdens on religious liberty are totally unnecessary. Why exactly does the government need an autopsy to establish the cause of death of a person it has just executed?
> Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2006 15:36:07 -0700
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> To: religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
> Subject: News of Employment Division v. Smith not reaching some district courts?
>
> Alley v. Levy, 2006 WL 1804605 (M.D. Tenn.) grants a Tennessee
> state death row inmate's request for a preliminary injunction blocking
> the autopsy of his body, on Free Exercise Clause grounds. The court
> says nothing about Smith, and simply asserts that strict scrutiny
> applies. It cites Workman v. Levy, 136 F. Supp. 2d 899, 900 (M.D. Tenn.
> 2001), which had done the same; that in turns cites United States v.
> Hammer, 121 F. Supp. 2d 794, 802 (M.D. Pa. 2000), which had done the
> same (though at least in Hammer the same result might have been reached
> under RFRA, since that involves a federal inmate).
>
> Eugene
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