It also didn't recognize that someone who makes a living by cheating death on camera probably isn't the best candidate for posthumous protection from publicity.
Irwin, 44 at the time of his death, made millions of dollars by wrangling toothy crocodiles and wrestling deadly snakes on TV.
He died earlier this month while filming at the Great Barrier Reef when a stingray stabbed him in the chest with its poisonous spine.
"If I'm going to die, at least I want it filmed," Irwin said in a 2002 interview with Associated Press Radio.
"If we blew a million dollars worth of cameras, at least we could have gone to MGM and gone, 'Hey, look at this tape,'" he said.
Irwin clearly considered the possibility that he'd suffer the fate that he eventually did, because he spoke publicly about it on more than one occasion and was never bashful about sharing his final moments with the world.
"My No. 1 rule is to keep that camera rolling," he reportedly told reporters.
"Even if it's shaky or slightly out of focus, I don't give a rip. Even if a big old alligator is chewing me up I want to go down and go, 'Crikey!' just before I die. That would be the ultimate for me," he said.
The things Irwin has said to the press make it seem like he wouldn't object to the release of his own death tape.
Additionally, only a handful of people have been killed by stingrays, and Irwin's death may be the first of its kind captured on camera.
His family may even give their blessing to the release of the tape.
If they approved of him feeding crocodiles while holding his infant son and didn't mind all the times he let snakes and frilled lizards bite his face on TV, why would they object to footage being released that showed him doing what he loved to do in his final moments?
In the end, the very nature of Irwin's career and public life make it laughable to suggest that he should be given some special level of privacy.
When people make a living from the attention of the public, they become the property of that public and lose some of their rights, including privacy, in the process.
This is especially true for someone like Irwin, who earned his money and his fame because millions of people tuned in each week in morbid fascination to watch him do dangerous and unimaginably stupid things.
While the average person may not want their death publicly exploited, it's something that still regularly happens: on the evening news, the Internet or in one of the many reality shows that almost exclusively feature clips of people getting killed or badly hurt.
Irwin exploited the possibility of his own death for years.
How could we be exploiting him by showing it to people?
Daniel Raven isn't afraid of stingrays. He is a junior majoring in journalism and his columns run on Fridays. Send him hate mail at: Daniel.Raven@asu.edu.
