A person who touches a dead body becomes impure and may not enter the Holy Temple.
Many laws have been written about the impurity conveyed by the dead. One of them is about a dead body in a state of decay. The sages ruled that only the decaying body of one person impurifies. If two bodies decay together, one who touches the decaying matter is not impurified. Moreover, if some foreign object is mixed with the decaying matter of the dead body, one who touches the decaying matter is not impurified. One sage, R’ Jeremiah, asked: if a pregnant woman dies, does her decaying matter impurify? What are the issues under debate? On one hand, she has a fetus in her womb, and they may be considered two separate bodies. On the other hand, the fetus may be considered part of the mother’s body and they would count as a single dead body. He went one to ask about a woman who had sexual relations with a man, and who still retained sperm within her womb when she died. When her body decays along with the man’s seminal emission, is one who touches her pure or impure? What are the issues under debate? On one hand, since the sperm could have fertilized an egg, it might be considered part of the woman’s body. On the other hand, the sperm did come from a man, a different person, and so it should be considered a foreign object. A different sage, Rav Papa, asked: excrement in a dead person’s bowels, decaying along with the body — what is the rule for one who touches this decaying matter? What are the issues under debate? On one hand it is man’s way to eat and excrement is usually found in his bowels, so it might be considered part of his body. On the other hand, excrement is the result of food which has come from outside the body, it might be considered a foreign object and one who touches it would not be impurified. Another sage, Rav Acha the son of Rav Ika, asked: what is the rule if the dead person’s skin rots along with his flesh? And what is the rule for phlegm and mucus which decay along with the body? One of the scholars reacted and said that if the dead person’s skin, excrement, and phlegm are considered foreign objects, when would the laws of an impurifying corpse ever come into play? All corpses decay along with their excrement, skin, and phlegm. Answer: This corpse was given an enema and its skin was removed using hot water.
(Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Nazir 51a-b)