Hi there arachno and welcome to YWS!
Based on the title/description, I was honestly expecting a different work. That's probably because I have a friend who works in physical anthropology, and there's a lot of controversy in that field over repatriation/reburial of native skeletons versus studying them. Of course, that's referring to people long dead, not recently dead like this story, so the arguments are slightly different.
Overall, I agree that this work has an interesting perspective, especially in this world where long-dead secrets can come to life. DNA testing raises serious privacy concerns, like the example of the Golden State Killer who was arrested this year because a relative put their DNA in a database and a woman who submitted her DNA and found out her biological father was actually the fertility doctor who gave her parents IVF. I know one of my mom's friend's relatives had a whole secret family that no one knew about (though I can't remember how or when that came to light).
I disagree with the thesis that we should let these secrets lie, however. The people in the examples above absolutely deserve to be accountable for their actions in life. Their victims and/or their loved ones deserve justice. Perhaps my thoughts on this are influenced by the fact that I am agnostic, so I don't know if there will be a hell for these awful people. But even if there is, I'd think a truly honorable person would turn themselves in if they wanted forgiveness. Think of the recent example of Bill Cosby-does his philanthropy and other good deeds outweigh the fact that he is now convicted of one rape and accused of many many more?
Plus, I don't know how realistic this scenario even is. I'd think as soon as it was clear that he was terminally ill, someone would try to reach out to his family. Even if I were to stumble across a body today, I'd hope that the police would work to identify those remains and notify the families. With the advent of social media and the aforementioned DNA databases, this person would probably be found and his past uncovered much more quickly.
Where I think the argument of judging the dead gets interesting is in more ambiguous scenarios. For example, my Yia-Yia (Greek for grandma) passed away from cancer a few years ago. She was highly regarded and certainly did a lot of good in life. She babysat for so many families in later years that over a dozen other families also called her Yia-Yia. But...she was also pretty racist. That's not uncommon among older people--my friend's grandma and my uncle who's around 80 also come to mind. My own parents, who are in their 60's, also have some pretty backwards attitudes. So how do we reconcile those sorts of beliefs in those who were generally good people? That, to me, is a much more interesting question than this sort of scenario.
Overall, this is an interesting and thought-provoking work, but I wonder if there's way to make the argument more realistic. Keep writing and welcome again!
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