Regulating the Dead to Protect the Living

The challenge posed by Wong Yung Quy, a Chinese immigrant living in San Francisco in the 1870s, to a law regulating the exhumation of human remains on the basis of religious freedom reveals the subordination of religious practice to public health concerns and regulation in nineteenth century California. This thesis examines the relationship between religion and public health in nineteenth century California through an analysis of the religio-racial climatology of the State Board of Health of California as well as the court's privileging of public health in Wong Yung Quy's challenge to California's law regulating the exhumation of human remains (In Re Wong Yung Quy, 1880). The intersection of religion, law, and public health in this context reveals the bio-political authority held by public health authorities, and the means by which a vision of the United States as a Christian society was normalized and enforced.The challenge posed by Wong Yung Quy, a Chinese immigrant living in San Francisco in the 1870s, to a law regulating the exhumation of human remains on the basis of religious freedom reveals the subordination of religious practice to public health concerns and regulation in nineteenth century California. This thesis examines the relationship between religion and public health in nineteenth century California through an analysis of the religio-racial climatology of the State Board of Health of California as well as the court's privileging of public health in Wong Yung Quy's challenge to California's law regulating the exhumation of human remains (In Re Wong Yung Quy, 1880). The intersection of religion, law, and public health in this context reveals the bio-political authority held by public health officials, and the means by which a vision of the United States as a Christian society was normalized and enforced.