The term of exhumation is designated as the unearthing of a corpse that was duly buried after the death of the person.. Exhumation is a common maintenance practice carried out in cemeteries, which consists of provisionally removing the human remains that had been buried in that place. It is a job that must be done with elements and adequate conditions to guarantee the conservation of the remains and also the health of the worker in charge of this task. It is an activity that of course requires conscious and respectful handling.
Causes for carrying out an exhumation
The reasons for exhumations can be varied, because the space reserved in some cemeteries is for a certain period of years, and then when this limit ceases it is necessary to exhume the remains and take them to a common ossuary. The space is freed so that another can occupy it.
It can also be carried out as a result of a court order to perform a forensic test on the corpse or remains, but immediately afterwards it is re-inhumed, among the most common causes.
While such an act of digging up a corpse is regarded as sacrilege by most religions that bury their dead as a fundamental part of their faith beliefs, there are some circumstances in which it will be tolerated. among them the following will be considered ...
When an individual dies surrounded by unclear and suspicious circumstances, that is, what is popularly called a doubtful death, those who are in charge of the investigation of the aforementioned, such as the prosecution, the police, may carry out the exhumation of the body, with the authorization issued by the competent authority through, in order to clarify the same, how and who killed him, if it was accidental death or murder, among other issues.
But of course, to obtain evidence it will be essential to unearth the body of the deceased person to carry out some studies and thus obtain information.
As the police and forensics say popularly, the corpses speak, by case, when there are doubts about the death, the authorities in charge of the investigation will indicate the exhumation so that seasoned professionals can analyze the corpse.
On the other hand, exhumation can be carried out with the aim of burying the body elsewhere. For example, a son decides to exhume his father's corpse to rest next to his mother's, which is found in a vault in a private cemetery.
That is, in this case there is no suspicion about the causes of the death of the person, it will only be a personal decision.
After a considerable time, as many cemeteries have a limited number of plots to bury the dead, when these are at full capacity, the usual thing is to move the contents of the oldest graves to an ossuary, place or container in the which the human remains are kept, in order to accommodate more bodies.
Another very frequent reason that can lead to the exhumation of a corpse is the need to perform a post-mortem DNA analysis on the deceased, since there is someone who demands paternity or maternity or any other blood tie with the deceased person.
Of course, this situation demands the order of a judge to be finalized, it is impossible to proceed to it without the due judicial resolution that supports it.
Normally, these cases generate reluctance among the relatives of the deceased because they are opposed to the practice of digging up the corpse and manipulating it, and also because of course they fear that there is a positivity in the claim and that the assets that the deceased had had to be shared.
Also, after a time archaeologists and physical anthropologists are allowed to unearth human remains in order to carry out a better study and understand the evolution of the human condition.
And also, after a certain time, some construction agencies are allowed to clear old cemeteries to erect some new infrastructure on them.
It is at this last point that there are major conflicts as a consequence of the reluctance of some cultures that refuse to lose their roots in this way.
