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Reason
Reason
Politics
Eugene Volokh

An Interesting Professional Speech Case from 10 Years Ago, Involving Speech About Dead Bodies

I just ran across it for the first time, so I thought I'd pass it along; it's Schoeller v. Bd. of Reg. (Mass. 2012) (opinion by Justice Fernande Duffy):

[T]he Board of Registration of Funeral Directors and Embalmers … permanently revok[ed] Troy J. Schoeller's licenses to do business in the Commonwealth as a funeral director and embalmer … after Schoeller made comments to a newspaper reporter about his experiences in the embalming profession and those comments were later published as part of an article about Schoeller.

Schoeller did not reveal any confidential or private information about any deceased person or bereaved family members whom he had served. Rather, the board found that Schoeller had violated an ethical regulation prohibiting an embalmer from "comment[ing] on the condition of any dead human body entrusted to his or her care," 239 Code Mass. Regs. § 3.13(7) (1998), and that he had used unprofessional language in his descriptions of dead bodies. By doing so, the board concluded, Schoeller had "engaged in gross misconduct and unprofessional conduct which undermines the integrity of the profession." …

The conduct at issue here occurred in late 2006, when a newspaper reporter sought to interview Schoeller about a retail clothing store Schoeller had opened in the Allston section of Boston…. Among the topics discussed that evening was Schoeller's work as an embalmer, and Schoeller made statements describing certain of his experiences. Approximately one week later, the newspaper published an article about Schoeller that included his comments about embalming[, including:]

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