Skip to content
Formerly Hosted by the Law Professor Blogs Network

Is “Technically Dead” dead enough?

Death2Assume that a person is declared dead.  Title to the person’s property vests immediately in the heirs and/or beneficiaries. 

But, what if the dead person comes back to life?  Does the title somehow revest in the now alive dead person?  Is title from a deceased person contingent on the death not being reversed by modern (or alien) technology, devine intervention, or vampirism?

What made me think about this today is a report from Wisconsin where a woman was found frozen with a body temperature of 73 degrees.  Surgeon Dr. Paul Seifert is reported as saying, “Technically you could say, ‘Yes, she was dead.’” 

See Doctors Amazed As Frozen Woman Comes Back To Life, WISN.com, Jan. 21, 2009.

Posted in: