Post Mortem Pictures

Hmm, a very interesting topic. Ok, I’ll bite.

With my background, culture etc. — I would say yes, it's ok. Being a part of the large 'Estonian bush' here on Geni myself, I see post-mortem pictures regularly since the custom of having open caskets during ceremonies has been common, along with group photos with crowds around the deceased in the casket, etc. Sometimes it's also the only occasion when the people attending have had their photo taken. I personally have never had a problem with it. I also do have imagery of my own dead grandparents and several others of my ancestors, but have not uploaded any of those myself since I do have alternatives that I rather show. I have no problem with them who choose to upload. Just remember the crowd sourced nature of Geni and you should have a good platform for decision making in these matters.

Also, times change. A modern high-res photo — snapped yesterday, depicting a very distant relatives corpse from the day before that—will probably be met and measured against an entirely different scale than a picture that is a 100 years old.

To nuance what I'm saying, I guess it's a matter of forum, form, presentation and value in the end, as you say; bodies with bullet holes might not be the most appropriate choice considering ethics. Depending on who it is, when, where and what he/she was about, it might still be relevant and even called for. Since this is a genealogy site, the forum certainly must be considered appropriate for 'regular' post-mortem imagery. It's down to making up our own minds in regards to form and presentation in each and every specific case. How can it be interpreted? Does it add something significant? Is it appropriate? Only you can decide according to your own best judgment.

On some people with post-mortem, it's the only photo I could find of the person...OR for instance, like Elvis Presley, it was because I wanted to show his funeral as it is part of his timeline.

I've found some pictures of outlaws who were executed or slaves who were executed, and I just find those too disturbing...even though that IS how they were killed and a fact that might be mentioned in their profiles.

As a profile picture I would say no (a tombstone would be better if you have nothing else)
But as part of the profile itself I see no problem. The pictures in the proile (other than the profile picture itself) is there to document the persons life/death. If you have a picture of an outlaw with bullet holes, I'm sure you got it off the internet to begin with and it's not under copyright so I see no problem. Your simply taking inffo from one place and placing it in another.

One day I was on Ebay looking at Vintage photos and someone had a post-mortem photo of a baby. They found this photo and it had a name on it and date. The seller's city was also listed, making me curious (they had no clue who the picture was of, but wanted to sell it). I looked that name up and found the baby actually had a family listed on Ancestry.com. It was SO SAD. The person selling the photo said, "The baby looks like it's in agony and her hand looks puffy." Come to find out the baby died from burns! I posted the picture as it was probably the only and definitely the last photo of that person. She didn't look in agony, just had pouty lips and her hand did look puffy.

This type of photo where VERY much in style about 100 years ago. They'd even do posed settings, dressed up with makeup and the whole thing. Death was a much more real and immediate part of life in those days, so they weren't so easily upset by it, as most present-day folks are. In many cases, this WAS the only photo, even for adults.