Dead Wrong

It is possible for an act to wrongfully harm a person even if the act takes place after the person is dead. David Boonin defends this view in <em>Dead Wrong</em> and explains the puzzle of posthumous harm. In doing so he makes three central claims. First that it is possible for an act to wrongfully harm a person while they are alive even if the act has no effect on that person's conscious experiences. Second that if this is so then frustrating a person's desires is one way to wrongfully harm a person. And third that it is possible for an act to wrongfully harm a person even if the act takes place after the person is dead. Over the course of the book Boonin introduces the significance of posthumous harm deals with each of his three main claims in turn responds to the objections that might be raised against the book's thesis and examines some of the ethical implications for issues such as posthumous organ and gamete removal posthumous publication of private documents damage to graves and corpses and posthumous punishment and restitution.<br>