Human Remains and Archaeology: The Legal Situation

Authors

  • Agnès Mathieu Sous-direction de l’archéologie, Service du patrimoine, Direction générale des patrimoines, Ministère de la culture, Paris

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7202/1066477ar

Keywords:

law, archaeology, ethics, human remains, anthropobiological remains, heritage code

Language(s):

French

Abstract

The subject of human remains in archaeology is linked to ethical or societal issues that call into question the notion of “dignity” and therefore of “respect” due to the human body. In archaeological research, the “human remain” is, to a certain extent, an object of study like other archaeological objects. This normality results from the scientific nature of the process, but also from the anonymity that is most often attached to the human remains uncovered. This duality between ethics and professional deontology is logically reflected in the subject’s legal understanding. There are thus general standards in civil law or funeral law that do not specifically concern archaeology, but which may apply to some of its situations. Specific standards are needed to reconcile the ethical issues related to human remains with the scientific issues of archaeology. But defining such standards is not easy, as evidenced by recent work in France on the law on freedom of creation, architecture and heritage (LCAP).

Archeology Ethics, (c) Emanuelle Dufour

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Published

2019-11-27

How to Cite

[1]
Mathieu A. Human Remains and Archaeology: The Legal Situation. Can. J. Bioeth 2019;2:201-5. https://doi.org/10.7202/1066477ar.

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 3 (2019): Ethics in Archaeology

Section

Perspectives

License

Copyright (c) 2019 Agnès Mathieu

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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