I can personally understand why he wouldn't want a post-mortem done on his body, I certainly wouldn't want one as I find it rather repulsive - especially to look down at my stomach and imagine myself stone dead on a slap having someone hack into my intestines, and even worse, my thoracic area. Yuck!

Surely as it's an illness and not a murder it should be his choice as to what happens to his body when he dies?????

It is, yes. That's not the issue in this case.

The situation is that he says he is dying of a rare cancer called mesothelioma, which is primarily caused by inhaling asbestos. You're probably going to say, why would anyone inhale asbestos? The people involved did not do it voluntarily. This was a big workplace scandal here in the US back in the 70s. Workers in certain industries were exposed to asbestos during the course of their daily work, and the employers did not tell the employees of the risk or take steps to protect them (such as appropriate safety masks.)

Numerous class action lawsuits were instituted during the 70s and 80s. "Class action" means it is brought on behalf of anyone who may be affected. Apparently, in the lawsuit referred to in this article, the parties reached a court-ordered settlement, pursuant to which people (or their estates, since they'll be dead) who were employed by certain industries and who died of mesothelioma could make a claim for a monetary payment.

As I understand it, under the terms of that settlement, before a deceased person's estate may receive a payment, the estate must prove that the person did indeed die from asbestos-related cancer. The settlement also provided that if needed to confirm the diagnosis, an autopsy would be performed before the money would be paid. Exceptions would be made for religious reasons. In this case, this guy is not objecting for religious reasons. He just doesn't want an autopsy performed.

To me, it seems like a reasonable request that the person must prove they died of asbestos-related causes before they could be paid for their asbestos-related death. Apparently, the parties in the class action lawsuit thought so too, when they agreed to it.

What the guy's lawyers are saying (I think) is that "if needed to confirm the diagnosis" is too vague and leaves too much to the discretion of whoever is administering the settlement at the time a person dies.

The article said this:

If that's true, the guy in this case has a point.

(edited to add: To make it clear, this settlement money is not paid by the government. It is paid by the specific company that was the defendant in this class action.)

"Set a new course. There's coffee in that nebula." -- Capt. Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager

Makes more sense now, thanks Kitty

That was probably more than you'd ever want to know about how class action lawsuits work.

"Set a new course. There's coffee in that nebula." -- Capt. Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager

I find the inner workings of things interesting when it explains what's going on

Thanks. Me too . But then I like to read encyclopedias for fun.

I've been thinking about this situation some more. I'm wondering ... times are tough financially. Is it possible the administrators of the settlement are trying to make it harder for claims to be made, in order to discourage people from making them and thus not have to pay as much out? Just speculating. This case is taking place in the state where I live, Washington State, so I probably will be hearing more about it. It's got me curious.

"Set a new course. There's coffee in that nebula." -- Capt. Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager

I've been known to do that too!

Oooh, in that case you can keep us up to date on what happens

Is it not possible that a biopsy is taken whilst he's still alive (or indeed dead) - that's no where near invasive and I personally wouldn't object to that...