What a crazy (and I don't mean that in a good way) World

Today in the paper I read a story about a Funeral Home being shut down because an employee had to cut a dead guy's legs off to get him to fit in the coffin his family had bought for him.

Now I realize that to the average Joe this comes across as a little gruesome.

The problem wasn't so much that he had cut the guy's legs off, it was that he hadn't gotten the family's permission to do it.

Here's the thing. The dead guy was 6 foot 7. I think we can all agree that he was quite tall. So why on earth would the family have thought they could go the cheap route with a standard size casket if they

A. Knew he would be too long for it. And

B. Didn't realize that the only way to squish him in there, would have been to cut either some off his top or his bottom.

I think the dead guy's family would have REALLY blown their tops if funeral boy, had gone with the head and neck instead of the legs and feet.

And amid all of this I just can't help but wonder,

Who Cares Anyway!?!

Well, apparently the State of South Carolina does.

The Funeral Home has been shut down. Not necessarily because they cut off the guy's legs, but that they did it without his family's permission!

That's right. The same family that didn't even think to ask if a 6 foot 7 inch tall man would actually fit into a standard size casket.

Which, by the way, happens to be 84 inches long.
That's true. I did research.

Okay, if this is all that had happened it would be a semi-funny, but kinda creepy, typical news story.

But wait, there was more.

It appears that in the State of South Carolina it is against the law to cut up a corpse. That is of course unless the family has actually agreed to it.

If there is consent then they can cut the dead to fit in whatever casket you want to use.

I assume that means within reason.

I doubt if it would be allowed to cut someone in half so that they could fit into that pretty little (and slightly cheaper) casket meant for a ten year old.

Alright, so we now know that cutting a dead person up without permission is a crime in SC. But here comes the really ridiculous part.

The standard sentence for the guilty chopper is ten years.

Ten Years! Can you believe that?

There could possibly be someone in South Carolina's State Pen who's "crime" was cutting a few inches off a corpse to make him fit in the casket the family had bought for him.

I can't believe that with all the talk nowadays about overcrowded prisons, that the courts would actually be stupid enough to use up a cell for some poor schlump who was only doing his job the way he thought best.

Granted ,the article did say that cutting up a corpse was the crime. So I guess they could also be referring to the serial killer who's freezer is chock full of frozen fillets of human.

I guess it might be meant to cover more heinous crimes like that.

But I still think it's pretty stupid. If someone has been caught with a chain saw and a bunch of fresh human parts, then I think it's pretty clear that what they have here is a really, bad, guy.
He should be facing the death penalty or at least the rest of his life in prison.

And the fact that he took his jollies in cutting up what he had just killed, well sure, I guess. Go ahead and tack on ten more years to his sentence.

But if it happens to be some unlicensed Funeral Home worker who forgot to ask the grieving family for their permission to make sure that Grandpa fits nicely in his too small coffin?

For heaven's sake. Fine the guy a few hundred and get on with it.

Save that prison cell for someone who really deserves it.