She should have stayed in the ocean where she belonged. She could have married some nice young merman and had some cute little merbabies and lived a long, happy life—

Light filtered in through the blinds of the french windows. It made tremulous stripes along the scrubbed pine floor.

[…] “Our host, his fair spouse, and bare-footen maiden, seemed equally strangers to the wholesome duties of ablution; […]”

If new legal considerations regarding treatment of the pre-dead are introduced, then the provisions ought to allow individuals to express prior wishes as to their preferences for how they wish to be cared for in pre-dead states, or even to allow for a 'conscience clause' such that they or their advocates could reject such a notion whilst retaining no right of veto over the existing cardiorespiratory and brain stem considerations of death.