Is it appropriate to post deaths on facebook?

[Jen]

A friend of mine just suffered the death of her 1.5 year old child. He stopped breathing in his sleep and is assumed brain dead. This was an AWFUL thing to hear as we were pretty good friends in high school, and I couldn't even imagine going through that kind of grief.
Now what got me thinking about whether it was appropriate or not, was the fact that she was posting pictures of her now assumedly dead child (still connected to the breathing machine, so technically still physically alive) and that she made about three of these posts with different pictures of him and that she took the time to tag the profile that she made for him on facebook each time.
It's everyone's choice how they grieve and it's completely her personal choice what she wants to post, but was just curious on other people's opinion on this. I'm not much of a facebook user, but I can understand the deep integration of the site into someone's life, so much so that they dont mind posting these kinds of things.
I'm not trying to be offensive, just sharing thoughts.

[Laddered Ah]

There's nothing wrong with it, as long as you don't post death photos.

[Ben]

I think that facebook is not good enough to be a platform for the very personal information

[Emilee]

It's probably not the most appropriate thing but if she wants to post it she can.

[Mike K]

Hello,

Yes. It is a very useful tool given that you can get in touch with family and friends all over the country and around the world who might otherwise never find out for a long time to come as I found out. However I do not think it is in good taste to publish a picture of the dead person lying in the coffin or just after they died in bed, especially without permission of the parent.

Cheers,

Michael Kelly