I'm afraid I don't know what you mean. Do you mean that marriage should continue to be honored after the death of one partner (i.e. it doesn't stop at 'till death do you part' anymore)?
Also, if you want people to vote in your poll, please link directly to the poll. Your link lead me to the main page where I could not immediately find the poll, so I edited the link out. Feel free to edit a direct link to the poll back into your topic. _________________ Violet "Violanthe" Kane
[email protected] ARWZ.com: A Magazine of Alternative Reality Fiction
Um, the question of whether you're still married after death is a separate one. Many of the older married couples had that automatic out clause. I'm hoping someone else will bring up that issue. But many newer services eliminate that rather doomful sounding line.
In this case, the issue is really: Can a living person marry a dead person and should that be state sanctioned? a marriage license. There's also the: Can a dead person marry another dead person? but the issue doesn't generate as much interest.
I'm not sure what the purpose would be. In some tribal societies, women could be married to slain warriors, and all of the children she had (typically sired by his brothers, as the whole family would live together) would be considered his children.
But, for example, in contemporary American society, I don't see how wedding a dead person is societally beneficial or even possible. Whether one believes in life after death or not, marriage is a contract of consent and the consent of a non-living person could not be legally determined. _________________ Violet "Violanthe" Kane
[email protected] ARWZ.com: A Magazine of Alternative Reality Fiction
Ah, but in my reality -- that is the speculative reality of my website and book -- life after death is a fact. We can communicate with the dead. Did I leave out that crucial fact? Sorry.
This is all happening become two of the members on the website, one living and one dead, are getting married.
Actually, you do bring up a good point. Only some disembodied have provabable living identities. But once dead, their identity is maintained just like it is here on this website: username and password. Actually, there's another level of proof, but let's no go into that.
If an identity can be maintained after death, why shouldn't consent from a dead person be considered legally binding. A digital signature right now isn't common, but isn't that what the username/password combo will involve into.
If I order a product off a website, using my username and password, isn't that legally binding?
But there's no way to prove that it is, in fact, the dead person who is using the username and password. Lots of people share their passwords with living friends and relatives. My mom knows most of my passwords, and I know a lot of hers. In truth, the people here on this webpage honestly don't know if it's me posting as "Violanthe" or her, whether it's me posting as "Saundra Kane" or her. While I don't purposefully go online to masquarade as my mom, we often use the same computer and have posted as the other one by mistake because the username was left logged in (after which we promptly delete or edit the post).
The purchases you make online are legally binding because you use a credit card that is set up in your name with legal information, and you continue to pay the charges and don't claim fraud.
OK, I guess I must go into specifics. In my twisted little world, an AfterNet terminal can detect the unique energy signature of a dead person. So, the fiction is, we always know that the same person who says they're Jennifer Petkus, really is Jennifer Petkus the next time they visit. Whether they really were Jennifer Petkus when living, that's another story.
But the person who now claims to be Jennifer Petkus (and I don't know anyone else who would claim to be me in the next life, except for my evil twin sister Jessica) can enter into a contract because once you claim an identity, you're stuck with it. Now, in reality, anyone can get a username and password on the AfterNet and if they don't like it, they can register again and get another.
Okay, then, my next question is: If you're talking about your interactive fictional online world, why do you need to ask us? You're the author, you determine the rules of the fictional reality. _________________ Violet "Violanthe" Kane
[email protected] ARWZ.com: A Magazine of Alternative Reality Fiction
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