agency and decay

Executive function, when lost, may not result in death. Mental capacity may be lost gradually, creating a blur in the transition of roles and responsibilities for a person's estate. Some write perfect wills with ready executors, but these are completely useless until a terminal event.

The law may specify that no other individual has a responsibility to manage or support the life of anyone "on the blur". After a terminal event, the law may specify that no one is required to claim the body. The government picks up the pieces, in this process. Costs are socialised.

Culture, meanwhile, has its own computations. Often a program cannot proceed, or proceeds disgracefully, if certain roles are not performed. So, reluctant actors are coached to execute performative actions, out of charity, for the audience's sake.

Some believe that culture has an equal or greater place, in determining actions, than the law. But only the law is funded by taxes towards enforcement.

So, write better laws.