Nanook

1. Take things from a corpse to trade for food instead of starving. Yes!

2. Million bucks is a million bucks. Of course I would!

3.Haha, I'm so poor that I robbed the mugger. I would if the money was not necessary to prove self defense.

whichphilosophy

Let's look at a few different scenarios....

1. There has just been a major diseaster in whatever country you live in, bodies strewn throughout the streets. You pass a body of a man who is wearing a large gold necklace and many diamonds/gold pieces on his fingers. You realize you may be able to barter for food rations with the jewelry because your country is going to be suffering for quite some time, do you take it from the dead man?

2. You're a grave digger and learn that the richest woman in town recently died. You have gotten "insider information" that she will be buried with her engagement ring her oil tycoon husband bought for her that is worth over $1 million USD. YOU are the one that will seal the inturnment. A few hours have passed after the funeral service, it is getting dark and there is no one else around. Would you take the ring from the woman before shoveling dirt on her casket?

3. A man tries to mug you. In the ensuing struggle, he is stabbed with the weapon he garnished in the heart on accident....he keels over and dies instantly in front of you. You notice a wad of cash sticking out of his pocket of what you perceive to be $5,000 USD from all the other muggings he had done that day. Would you take the money from the dead man who just tried to rob you?

Are your answers more related to desperation? (Scenario 1) How about how much money you could make? (Scenario 2 vs. 3)

Please justify your actions for my particular scenarios as to why or why not.....and if you think of your own in a situation where you WOULD steal from the dead, I would love to hear it.[/QUOTE]

I can only go under English law, which often approximates US law in certain circumstances like this. What you mentioned would be illegal, but that doesn’t mean such things don’t happen.

1) That would be looting. The person who finds the property has a duty to hand this in and these should be passed to relatives. It may also be theft. For here you would have a duty of care to the relatives in that you must take steps to ensure that they are found. Register the goods but claim them back after a reasonable period if they are not taken. Even if the person who is dead has no heirs, the act is still theft for there was intent to permanently deprive the owner of their property. However if you were a victim yourself and took some of their food and water, or used the dead person's valuables to purchase food and water, the courts would determine whether a reasonable man of average intelligence would do that and there would not be a likely prosecution. Each case will be judged on its own distinguishing circumstances.

2) The property still belongs to the next of kin. That would be theft (appropriation whereby you intended to permanently deprive the owner of their property). When someone owns property, where he or she choose to locate it, does not diminish such an act.

3) I don’t know how by looking at a wad of cash you can assume they came from earlier mugging victims. However if you took the cash that would be theft. Here your duty of care would be to the victims. If you took the cash, you would be charged with theft of those victims’ money. So in theory the charge would be on that account. On a point of law, if Joe steals a note marked 3AB33367 from Fred. If Sam snatches a note marked 4AB33333 it is not Fred’s note. However the courts on balance may not take this point into consideration.


If you find something that you can genuinely believe is abandoned and there are clear indications that it could well be, then you could not be prosecuted.

If, for instance, you find money in the street or a toy, that is something that is LOST, not abandoned. Legally you would need to hand this in.

However if someone parks a car in a field, will generally not be prosecuted, as the appearance would be of something that is abandoned.

His Noodly Appendage

This isn't LF&P

kthxbai

Fr. Gottisttot

1. I would steal the dead man's jewels in scenario one if there was no one -- like his family -- to claim them. They get first dibs, but after that it's fair game for survival.

2. I don't know. Probably not, since I wouldn't have the guts to do anything. I think it is incredibly dumb to bury such a valuable item, but it would also be hard (at least for me) to sell the item on any market, black or otherwise. But the survivors have given up claim to the ring, and she's dead... so I guess if the money goes to feeding starving children or something, the taking is justified.

3. No, I don't know that he got it from muggings, and there's no way that I could return the money if it was mugging loot.

figuer

What does English law or U.S. law have to do with defining something as moral or not?

Homosexual relationships were ilegal in parts of the U.S. until quite recently, does that mean they were immoral?

Ghostdog

Depends who the dead person is.

Glimmung

I usually ask them if they mind me taking that thing. If they say yes, I do not take it.

-G

whichphilosophy

Sorry for the late reply.

Laws try to reflect with the morals of the society tend to change as the views of society change. Thus there are still confusions (in the US not UK) as to the rights and wrongs of Abortion and homosexuality).

Homosexuality is a good example in that pulbic opinion changed the law. Taking this further the APA voted in Homosexuality as a "disorder," in the DSM, public protests made this group feel isolated and in the next issue, homosexuality was no longer classed as a disorder.

It's hard to base laws on an exact set of moral values because in a free society simply because we all have different values. So the law tries to get some mean ground that is acceptable to the general consensus.

Taking an old phrase, if you ask a band of lawmakers to design a duck, they'll probarbly end up with a platypus. (I'm not sure who quoted the term, "A platypus is a duck made by a committee."

Mr Carcer

The only case where I would steal from the dead is one where my survival or the survival of my loved ones depend upon it.

Oxymoron

My brother embezzled £18,000 from our dead father's estate. Does that count?