South Africa’s ‘Lazarus’ buried
A South African man’s body has been buried after being preserved by his widow for eight weeks because a prophet predicted he would come back to life.
The owner of a funeral parlour kept Paul Meintjes’ body “on ice” for weeks before returning it to the family home.
His widow then kept the body in a coffin by her bed for three days – apparently awaiting his return to life.
A Free State court ordered the burial at a cemetery in Hertzogville after officials declared a health risk.
Police officers, municipal workers and journalists were present at a brief ceremony, South African media reported.
The prediction from local prophet, David Francis, that Mr Meintjes would rise from the dead, had divided the family with his widow and two of her three children refusing to allow his body to be buried.
Police spokesman Sam Makhele told Reuters news agency that the body had still been recognisable, “but after a few days out of the fridge the smell was not OK”.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/3598982.stm
Published: 2004/08/25 16:28:11 GMT
© BBC MMIV
Flood
By: steve rowell - 28th August 2004 at 07:30
Britain’s Science Museum is considering a particularly gruesome new exhibit – a decomposing human body displayed in a glass box.
The planned attraction in an adults-only part of the London museum would be intended to prompt debate and tackle taboos about death, the Sunday Times said.
However the museum is still consulting experts such as pathologists and bereavement counsellors to work out both practicalities and ethical concerns, and the idea could still be abandoned, the report said.
The museum’s head of learning told the newspaper that the exhibition, if it did go ahead, would use a real body.
“It would be a body of a person who has given consent to have their body displayed as part of an exhibition about death,” said Ben Gammon.
“The idea is that you would see the body decomposing in a similar way to how it would decompose in the ground.”
A television company was also interested in filming the process through time-lapse photography, he added.
By: steve rowell - 28th August 2004 at 07:16
I don’t think this story is real. 😮 Corpses don’t start to smell after they are out of the fridge for a few days. :rolleyes:
J.V.
The decomposing process starts the split second you die, a cadaver will start to smell within 18 hours of being taken from the fridge
By: Arabella-Cox - 27th August 2004 at 16:10
She was waiting for him to go stiff apparently.
By: Nermal - 27th August 2004 at 15:50
When I had all those bodies hidden around the house there was a distinct aroma whafting about…Oops! – Nermal
By: Stieglitz - 27th August 2004 at 15:33
I don’t think this story is real. 😮 Corpses don’t start to smell after they are out of the fridge for a few days. :rolleyes:
J.V.
By: steve rowell - 27th August 2004 at 03:16
How morbid
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August 25, 2004 at 7:06 pm