I realize this is rant thread, and rebuttals aren't necessarily necessary or welcome. Think of this as a public service announcement instead. Get some sort of photo with the full family, because even children aren't immortal.
My brother died when he was 18. My mum was dutiful about purchasing school portraits each year, and there are pictures in may combinations of parent+kid(s). There are zero pictures with us as a full, unbroken, pre-damage family. I grieve the missing presence of that photo.
Not having that photo is really hard. I'm sorry.
I always grieve that the only photo I have with my son (he was stillborn) is truly awful. The place where I gave birth didn't work with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep or other trained bereavement photographers, so I have only a really poorly light snapshot. I see other women's photos and am truly jealous. I have a photo of his face, but it is extraordinarily difficult to look at because he was so deformed. The doctor who took the picture apparently didn't think to do the classic "newborn baby feet" photo, as his feet were perfect. I wish I had that one.
I guess what I'm getting at, is that I've never seen a dead person outside of a funeral and I'm not up for touching any dead people. I know it is much different for first responders of course.
I volunteer with a non-profit organization that raises money for, among other things, "cuddle cots" in hospitals. These are chilled bassinets that help keep a deceased baby/toddler's body from decomposing. Apparently, for up to 2 weeks (in some countries they get sent home with families to spend time with their loved one, in the US, it is usually just to extend the time by a few hours that a family can stay with the baby). I was telling my Mother about this, and she was so grossed out about it, she just thought anything more than a minute or two was too much. I got about 10-15 minutes with my son, I know a few people whose toddlers were taken from them after just minutes to get an autopsy started. But the Moms I know who had their children in the room with them for a few hours speak so fondly of that time they got with them. Something like that would have been amazing- to not feel like you have to hand the baby off so quickly.
Other than my son, I don't think I've seen a dead person outside of a funeral.