Privacy Rights for ancient Dead People

Privacy Rights for ancient Dead People - Discovery Magazine Blog

 

The rights of the living are being eroded away year by year, but we're worrying about dead people now? I wish it would strike me as amazing, but at this point, it just doesn't. I've gotten too used to this kind of thing.

 

Just plain silly.

 

ROTFL!

 

None of the people King tut knew is alive, the people making a big deal out of this are attention seekers.

 

When you're discussing ethics, the simplest way to make a point is often to take it to an extreme. So yes, maybe discussing mummies sounds a bit silly, but the thought behind it isn't. It's easy enough to find a majority that will agree mummies are old enough to be poked and prodded, but where exactly is the line drawn? Is medieval Europe too soon? The Crusades? World War I? Mass graves of more recent global conflict?

One of the authors of the paper on "mummy ethics" even states that it'd be difficult to devise a universal ethical policy, and that he just wants scientists to take responsibility and demonstrate they've at least considered the ethical implications of their work.

Where the line between grave robbing and archaeology is drawn isn't a new concept, and this just seems like an extension of that debate.