Do people get to play with other people's bodies?
I think I understand Michael's motive. She said she wouldn't want her body to be kept around for the gratification of others, to be watered, cultivated and dusted regularly. He decided to honor what she said she wanted.
Her parents took exception. He rested his position on what their daughter, his wife, said she wanted, not on what her parents said they wanted, because her body was not their property, and not his property, but her property, even after death.