Decisions of Fate - Lesson 4

Judaism famously lends significant sanctity to human life, but what does it say about a human corpse? Does the sanctity persist after death? Is it permissible to donate a body to science?

This lesson explores the Jewish principle that the human body is sacred in life and also in death. Judaism teaches that both body and soul are considered delivered to a person as Divine deposits, and that when G-d reclaims an individual’s breath of life, we are expected to return their body to the soil (from which humans were originally formed) as complete as possible, and without undue delay. Jewish law mandates that a human cadaver be treated with utmost dignity and respect after death, and—subject to certain limited exceptions—generally prohibits autopsies. Donating a body to science denies the body burial, and is similarly proscribed.

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