Netherlands to ban sexual acts with human corpses

The Netherlands will make necrophilia - sexual acts with a deceased person - punishable by law, Ministers Dilan Yesilgöz of Justice and Security and Arie Bruins Slot of Home Affairs said in a letter to parliament on Tuesday. The ban includes producing sexual images of and with a body.

"We believe that a clear signal should be sent that this behavior, but also other very radical forms of (physical) desecration, are not accepted in our society," Yesilgöz said. "The suffering that this can inflict on surviving relatives is great."

In January, a majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, asked the Minister to ban acts of necrophilia. She said she first wanted the Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC) to investigate the matter.

The researchers studied several different forms of desecration of a body, including performing sexual acts with a corpse, buying or selling a corpse, producing images of a corpse including taking fingerprints, and removing items that have been surgically added to a body. They also looked at the process of exhuming a corpse, destruction or concealment of a corpse to hide the cause of death, physically altering a corpse, buying or selling body parts, and "the unauthorized modification of the corpse," including putting it into different positions and maintaining physical contact with it.

Ultimately, the scientists determined that a dead body carries a special legal status not fully protected under Dutch law. Legal systems in other countries also "offer more protection against criminal offenses than the Netherlands," the minister wrote. An examination of legal systems in the countries of the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden and the United States showed that they mostly have already criminalized sexual behavior with a corpse.

The researchers concluded, and the Ministers agree, that the current method of punishing necrophilia based on Article 350, which states that destroying or damaging an object is punishable, is not appropriate to the suffering caused to deceased relatives nor to the respect that the deceased deserves. The Ministers will therefore adapt the law so that necrophilia becomes a criminal offense in its own right. "This applies to all sexual behavior and not just sexual penetration."

They also agreed that Dutch law should be adapted to make the production or possession of sexual images involving dead bodies a criminal offense. "Making images of a sexual nature of a deceased body can cause serious distress to the relatives of the deceased person. Their memory may be affected and the images may be perceived as shocking and offensive. This can also harm the human dignity of the deceased person."

The researchers recommended that deliberately desecrating a corpse should also be punishable, as should exhuming a body without permission. "It should be noted that the researchers also recommend criminalizing (inducing another) body donation for profit." The researchers also recommended more permitting procedures be put in place for organizations that want to include corpses as part of an exhibition or display.

"It is important to note that the study showed that – as far as is known – the number of incidents for all culpable behavior on an annual basis is (very) limited," Yesilgöz said. "There are not many known cases of sexual behavior with deceased persons in the Netherlands."