Court Refuses "Sky Funeral" For Veteran; Gives Hospital Control of Body

In Newby v. Serpentfoot, (GA Super. Ct., June 17, 2013), a Georgia state trial court rejected an attempt by a "Ms. Serpentfoot" to claim the body of deceased veteran Leeveneous Dempsey who died while a patient at a hospital in Floyd County, Georgia.  Serpentfoot had a health care power of attorney from Dempsey, who died on April 14. Instead the court granted the petition of the Floyd Medical Center allowing it to direct disposition of Dempsey's body, saying that Serpentfoot planned "morally and legally reprehensible" acts on Dempsey's body.  According to the Rome (GA) News-Tribune, Serpentfoot, who is president of Word Problems and Problem Solvers, Cures — a religious organization based on her "Bad News Gospel"-- claimed to be Dempsey's de facto husband.  She wanted to provide Dempsey a "sky funeral," in which she would "dismember the body, extract and retain the bones for study and 'art' purposes, place the deboned flesh in the open to feed animals and fertilize plants and save a portion of the remains to deposit at sea." Dempsey was buried with military rites on Tuesday.