I want your honest answer.

[Minimalist]

Dr Quinn says that this is a point were the cost of science is to high.

Disagree. Truth is, I don't have much patience for this whole "those-bones-belonged-to-my-great-great-great-great-grandfather" shit.

[Chad32]

There have been worse things done in the name of science than digging in graveyards. Like experimenting on live subjects.

[Thumpalumpacus]

If there were a goldmine (scientific or otherwise) beneath the graves of your family and ancestors, would you be ok with their remains being sifted through in the name of progress?

In my opinion, it's less of a cultural position and more so a personal one.

I wouldn't have a problem with it. My shrine to my deceased family is in my heart, after all.

[Neo-Scholastic]

I say it depends on who owns the ground.

[vorlon13]

Iowa now has regulations governing gravesites. Until a few years ago, 'pioneer cemeteries' if on private land could be plowed up and farmed if the owner wanted too.

It's a little harder now.

For 'landlocked' cemeteries, caretakers and relatives are granted access after harvest time.

Volunteer organizations are locating and preserving the pioneer cemeteries that remain.

[Thumpalumpacus]

You don't want to know about the cemeteries in Stalingrad during the siege in WWII . . .


(shudder)

... or the ones in Northern France, dug up with artillery during the First World War.

[vorlon13]

Um . . .

not that we are debating degrees, but it is my understanding the French ones were just blown up. The Stalingrad ones were, not to be indelicate, a pantry for the starving city.

Ewwww.

[Aoi Magi]

We have done and continue doing a lot of cruel and horrible things in the name of science and discovery. Grave digging pales in comparison to some of those.

I certainly think digging up graves would be ok if:
1) It is done by scientists/archeologists instead of greedy townfolk
2) It is done with adequate planning and the research is based on proof, not a hunch.
3) The sentiments and cultural values attached with the place is treated with respect.

[vorlon13]

How about anonymity of the deceased ??

Easier maybe if we don't have a name attached ??

[Cato]

Poor bastards. They were probably reasonable people that wouldn't be caught dead watching a an episode of that hideous show; only to end up being embroiled in one.

Seriously though, I agree with Chad regarding property rights. I personally think cemeteries rank up their with golf courses as wastes of prime real estate, but to each their own I suppose.

I'll also add that I find it a particularly silly consideration given the fact that the Indians had just been pushed off their land (show was set in 1870 or so). For this reason I don't understand how all of a sudden honoring a burial ground becomes an important moral issue.