Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses a legal monetary dispute that could potentially be resolved via evidence gained by exhuming a corpse. The Gemara has to weigh the needs of justice versus the prohibition to disgrace a corpse. 

The Gemara takes it as a given that disinterment is a forbidden desecration of the human body. The Gilyonei Hashas suggests it fits under the category of halanas hames, the prohibition against leaving a body unburied. The verse states (Devarim 21:23):

You must not let the corpse remain on the stake overnight, but must bury it the same day. For it it is a curse of Elokim to have an impaled hanging body.  

What is meant by “a curse of Elokim is hanging”? The derash is that since Man is made in the image of God, disrespecting the human form, even a dead form without life still reflects on God (see Rashi, quoting the Midrash). The idea is extended halachically to all corpses, as the verse can be seen as referring to the extreme case, Kal V’chomer the form of a relatively righteous person who did not suffer the death penalty.

The idea that the human form, even a deceased empty body, must to be respected should be straightforward. It is hard to imagine that any culture or tribe exists that dishonors its dead. It seems to be a basic requirement of civilization. That is not to say that all cultures are equally moral, as they may for example dehumanize their enemies and only consider the corpses of kin or countrymen to be worthy of this regard. Or, who knows, perhaps some group of savages believes eating your relative honors him by incorporating his remains into your continued existence. Regardless of the exact performance of the honor, one might say there need not be an additional reason to honor the human corpse because it represents God, but merely because it is decent and civilized. Do we need to give charity and offer kindness because humans are made in the image of God or because it is just decent and moral?

Yet, this is exactly why we need more than civilization. We need to answer to a higher authority and realize that human dignity is about God’s dignity, not just our own. Otherwise human arrogance leads to a myopic morality. A savage may mutilate the corpse of his enemy believing he is somehow justified as he is not really human. This is how a person who touts human rights and believes he or she is a defender of women and oppressed individuals can begin with the relatively worthy and moral idea of body autonomy and end up massacring a million babies a year (the annual abortion rate). The so-called belief that this respects even the mothers is misguided, as it runs contrary to maternal instinct. Not only does it leave women in danger of a life of loss and grief, it also subtly encourages men to avoid reproductive responsibility and marriage because the burden of contraception and pregnancy falls more on women. Abortion offers the illusion of sexuality without responsibility, yet the basic psychology of human maternal drives must put many women at risk for depression post abortion.    

Of course there are occasions that a woman’s life and situation trump the needs of the unborn, such as grave medical and psychological consequences. Yet based on the quantity and stage of pregnancy that abortions are often performed, a good portion of abortions seem to be merely after-the-fact birth control. Furthermore, many are late term abortions, where with today’s technology, represent viable fetuses (6 months), something that was never supposed to be allowed under Roe V. Wade. 

Once God is removed from the picture,  moral decay continues. I wish this was conspiracy theory but in fact Planned Parenthood supplies thousands of baby body parts, which is technically deemed as donating for research and permitted, as opposed to selling body parts which is illegal. A damning NY Post expose reveals alleged internal emails and undercover videos of what appears to be negotiating large sums for “donating” body parts. Although Planned Parenthood argues that the payments were for medical costs associated with storage, transfer etc and not actual profiteering, it sure looks ugly. The investigation also appears to show systemic racism in how different ethnicities were informed about the fetal tissue donation on the medical releases, depending on the language, with certain minorities receiving no information. Check out these allegations in the original article and draw your own conclusions: (https://nypost.com/2024/11/21/us-news/planned-parenthoods-emails-negotiating-for-fetuses-exposed/?utm_campaign=iphone_nyp&utm_source=pasteboard_app )

Assuming nothing technically illegal was committed it still reeks of repulsive immoral commodification of the human body. This comes about when people talk about human dignity but leave out God.