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However, I was recently informed by my sister-in-law that my brother in law, who works with the Medical School, has given the body of my husband to the Medical School and they are about to begin practical examinations using the body.

I informed him of my displeasure and asked him to retrieve the body but he refused saying that, “he is my brother, I can do with his body whatever I please".

Unknown to me, my husband had made a Will and burial instructions in which he named his brother and I as the executors of his estate.

He stated in paragraph 10 of the Will that he wishes to be cremated and that no examination should be conducted on his body.

After informing my brother-in-law of this fact he still refused to adhere to the wishes of my late husband which I had decided to carry out. I would like to know if there is any way to prevent my brother-in-law and the Medical School from using my husband's body for practical exercises.
Afia Kumeye,
Accra.

Dear Afia, My condolences for your loss and I truly sympathise with your current predicament. In order to know whether or not your brother-in-law had the right to permit your husband's body to be given to the Medical School for purposes of medical research, we must consider the concept of the ownership of body and body parts of a deceased under the laws of Ghana.

Under customary law of Ghana, every individual is deemed to belong to two distinct types of families; a nuclear family and an extended customary family which may be patrilineal or matrilineal.

In accordance with such customary law, the body or corpse of an individual is deemed to belong to the extended customary family of that individual and as such, it is within their rights and capacity to determine what happens to the deceased’s body.

Thus based on this position recognised by courts that the body of a deceased belonged to the wider extended family, any written direction or provision by a member of such family would be deemed to have no effect under customary law and shall not be binding on the family but may be honoured by the family based on respect and courtesy to the deceased.

However, this customary law position has been superseded by the Anatomy Act 1965, Act 280. Section 1 of the aforementioned Act provides that the minister may grant a licence for certain acts specified in the Act to be carried out to the body of the deceased. These acts include to receive that body in a medical school or institution, keep the body in a medical school or institution and examine that body in a medical school or institution. Section 3 of the Anatomy Act states that where an individual by his written words which must be attested by two witnesses, or by his words spoken during his life, directs that his body may be received at a medical school for the purpose of scientific research and that request is made known to the executor before burial or cremation, then his directions must be adhered to.

Section 2 of the Anatomy Act also grants an executor, who is in lawful possession of the deceased body of an individual, the right to permit the licensee to carry out the various actions mentioned in section 1 of the act; i.e. receive that body in a medical school or institution.

This provision elaborates on the fact that an executor to a will shall have the capacity to permit the license to enable a corpse to be received and examined by a medical institution. However, this permission is only available to the executor where he is aware of a fact that the deceased had not expressed before his death an intention contrary in writing in the presence of two witnesses or by word of mouth.

This point is illustrated in Section 2(2) (a) of the Act. In accordance with Section 4 of the Anatomy Act, an executor would be prohibited from permitting the examination of the body of the deceased where the deceased in his lifetime has expressed a contrary intention in the manner prescribed.

Hence based on the fact that your late husband expressly stated in his will that no medical examination should be conducted on his body, your brother-in-law has no right to grant his body to the medical school as it is against the wishes of the deceased.

I would advise you to pursue an action in court for an injunction to stop your brother-in-law and the Medical School from examining the body of your husband.