MOURNING AND FUNERAL RITES IN TIMES OF PANDEMIC

Abstract

The Covid-19 crisis has had an impact on a wide range of social dimensions. One of them, particularly symbolic, is the management of death and mourning. Indeed, the state of health emergency has allowed a large number of derogations from funeral law when the deceased are affected or ‘probably affected’ by Covid-19, or even for any person: prohibition of conservation care and mortuary toilets, immediate burial, longer burial periods, severe limitation of funeral ceremonies, etc.
All these elements have had a major impact on funeral practices and the way in which mourning is experienced, producing particularly strong human, social and psychological repercussions for the relatives and families of the deceased. Analysed by some as an “anthropological rupture”, these changes tend to accentuate the form of denial of death that our societies already experience. While health considerations easily explain the changes that have been made, relatives and families find themselves ‘dispossessed’ of their mourning by not being able to pay tribute to the deceased and to gather around him or her through rites that help them to overcome the death. All these elements justify a legal and ethical reflection on death during a pandemic.