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Why We Honor The Dead
- We feel obligated to honor the wishes of the dead, and that feeling explains why institutions exist to execute those wishes.
- Barry Lam questions whether that perceived obligation truly justifies legally and economically enforcing the dead's directives.
Wishes Are Fixed In Time
- Written wishes bind future executors to a specific time-stamped preference, even though people change.
- Lam finds it odd that law treats a recorded past preference as a perpetual obligation.
Two Dimensions Of The Problem
- Obligations to the dead raise two key issues: temporal scope and costs to the living.
- Deciding to honor a dead person's wish requires balancing how long it lasts and the harm it causes now.