The Kaohsiung Department of Health on Thursday said it plans to fine a Kaohsiung woman who has been storing her husband’s corpse at home and ensure that he is buried.
The woman, surnamed Hsu (許), an octogenarian, is known to have left the body of her husband, surnamed Chen (陳), in an ice box at her townhouse, where she has been living alone since he died in January, the department’s Disease Control Division Director Pan Chao-ying (潘炤穎) said.
The district warden and other officials have repeatedly urged Hsu to bury her husband, he said, adding that she has no children that the authorities know of.
When Kaohsiung Mortuary Services director Hsieh Ting-sung (謝汀嵩) visited her in August, Hsu said she could not afford a cemetery suited to her needs, but later agreed to a burial at the Yanchao Shenshuei Public Cemetery (燕巢深水公墓), Pan said.
Hsu became increasingly uncooperative, so the department on Tuesday issued a notice that officials would carry out a sanitation inspection in two days, which she said she would allow, he said.
However, when Department of Health officials and the police went to her home, Hsu did not answer the door, leaving the department no choice but to fine her between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000, according to provisions of the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), he said.
Considering Chen died of septic pneumonia, storage of the cadaver in a non-medical ice box, where microbes and germs could multiply, poses a significant public health threat, he said.
The department has not ruled out forcibly removing the body from the premises, he said.
Hsu’s neighbors have been seen flying red streamers bearing auspicious slogans in response to the situation.
Additional reporting by CNA
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