The California courts have recently determined that the right to privacy does not extend beyond death in the case of Nikki Catsourus. While this gets escalated to the appeals level, and then most likely on to the Supreme court, we have to wonder why. Perhaps more importantly, we should ponder as to why we feel the need to be so voyeuristic. This is a tragedy beyond compare, and the family must be suffering in unimaginable ways. This young lady was not famous and should therefore not be subject to the same rules of privacy.

What is our obsession with the gruesome details? Why is human nature such that we just cannot look away? And why in the world would a California Highway patrolman find it necessary to send these pictures to friends and then have them end up all over the internet? Can we say common decency?

As this story unfolds, and the case winds its way through the court system let us accept that this behavior, while not currently illegal, is unethical to say the least. Surely there must be something else for people to obsess about that is not quite so vile. It is bad enough that people read the rag magazines about the famous and infamous, but leave this poor child and her family alone. Haven’t they suffered enough?