I think it far from fair to generalize. The original post did not contain info as to which morgue or even which country.
I did say it was a US morgue, although which morgue is unspecified.
(The theft report is not really the same issue as being discussed here, and morgues should be 'safe' places, and indeed seem so in hospitals, if the statistics reported are anything to go by. Anyone cognizant of the Jimmy Saville story shows just what celebrity can get away with in our culture.)
I would have assumed the US being as litigious as it is, that the publisher would have taken all reasonable steps to ensure there would be no action against them for using the image.
For me, the "While it is true that the dead cannot give consent or assert identity, Serrano abuses the authority he possesses as the living, for the sake of his art" comment is the significant point.
Interestingly, according to a browser:
"
Post-Mortem Status: Upon death, the body
does not belong to anyone as property; instead, custody and the right of disposal vest in
personal representatives or the state for forensic purposes, not in the deceased or their heirs as inheritable assets."
+++
As an aside, I'm involved with "Poems on the Underground", a London-based arts programme, in which poems appear alongside the adverts in carriages on the Tube (subway). All permissions have to be secured before the poems can appear, even though the tube cards are effectively 'free advertising' for poets, their poems, and poetry in general. Book collections of the poems are constant sellers, a rarity in poetry publishing.
We were going with a poem which the programme founder (A New Yorker and longtime resident in the UK) was unable to get copyright permission. Eventually the publisher said, "Just go ahead, we'll sort the details later."
"Oh, no, no, no," she said to me in a subsequent phone call. "I'm not falling into that trap."
