Can the dead be brought into disrepute?
Queen Christina of Sweden was unconventional in her time, leading to hypotheses on her gender and possible hermaphroditic nature. If genetic analysis can substantiate the latter claim, could this bring the queen into disrepute 300 years after her death? Joan C. Callahan has argued that if a reputation changes, this constitutes a change only in the group of people changing their views and not in the person whose reputation it is. Is this so? This paper analyses what constitutes change and draws out the implications to the reputation of the dead. It is argued that a reputation is a relational property which can go through changes. The change is "real" for the group changing their views on Queen Christina and of a Cambridge kind for the long dead queen herself. Cambridge changes result in new properties being acquired, some of which can be of significance. Although the dead cannot go through any non-relational changes, it is possible for the dead to change properties through Cambridge changes. In this sense changes in reputation do affect the dead, and thus Queen Christina can acquire a new property, in this case possibly a worse reputation.
Masterton
Malin
M
Department for Public Health and Caring Sciences, Centre for Bioethics at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet, Uppsala, Sweden. malin.masterton@bioethics.uu.se
Hansson
Mats G
MG
Höglund
Anna T
AT
Helgesson
Gert
G
D003643:Death; D012734:Disorders of Sex Development / Q000266:history*; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D028781:Ethical Relativism; D005197:Famous Persons; D005783:Gender Identity; D030661:Genetic Privacy / Q000266:history*; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D010067:Ownership / Q000941:ethics; D012938:Social Perception; D013548:Sweden