Interview with Ray D. Madoff on Immortality and the law: The rising power of the American dead, by Ray D. Madoff

Abstract

In Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American Dead, Professor Madoff reveals how the legal system is increasingly allowing wealthy people to exert control over their fortunes long after their death, creating a type of virtual immortality. But this type of immortality is not without considerable cost to the living and society at large. At the same time, American law provides the dead with no control over what happens to their bodies after death. Professor Madoff discusses a whole range of legal issues relating to the dead from cryogenics to grave robbing, from wills and trusts to copyright and right of publicity, providing background and context to the many ways we try to use the law to cheat death.