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Life assurance and consensual death: law making for the rationally suicidal

Life assurance and consensual death: law making for the rationally suicidal
Life assurance and consensual death: law making for the rationally suicidal
Difficult questions of medical ethics are often made more complex in the real world by the intrusion of private law considerations. The end of life choices of a mentally competent but terminally ill patient may be influenced by the consequences for the financial well being of surviving dependants. In particular, attention is likely to be given to the effect on any life insurance cover in place. For many this will represent the greatest financial asset contingent on death. There has been considerable debate as to the proper response of public law to these issues, in both the criminal and regulatory fields. However, the prosecutorial, judicial and jury discretions that bound these rules limit their impact in practice. By contrast, the private law principles that govern the distribution of assets on death have been largely overlooked. This article redresses that imbalance
0008-1973
521-548
Davey, James
6fe8c2ef-5959-4877-94a5-a55098975daa
Coggon, John
192d1511-cd81-45f4-8748-c398b74949b9
Davey, James
6fe8c2ef-5959-4877-94a5-a55098975daa
Coggon, John
192d1511-cd81-45f4-8748-c398b74949b9

Davey, James and Coggon, John (2006) Life assurance and consensual death: law making for the rationally suicidal. Cambridge Law Journal, 65 (3), 521-548. (doi:10.1017/S0008197306007215).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Difficult questions of medical ethics are often made more complex in the real world by the intrusion of private law considerations. The end of life choices of a mentally competent but terminally ill patient may be influenced by the consequences for the financial well being of surviving dependants. In particular, attention is likely to be given to the effect on any life insurance cover in place. For many this will represent the greatest financial asset contingent on death. There has been considerable debate as to the proper response of public law to these issues, in both the criminal and regulatory fields. However, the prosecutorial, judicial and jury discretions that bound these rules limit their impact in practice. By contrast, the private law principles that govern the distribution of assets on death have been largely overlooked. This article redresses that imbalance

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More information

Published date: November 2006
Organisations: Southampton Law School

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 342965
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/342965
ISSN: 0008-1973
PURE UUID: c4024379-7930-4dab-a64f-6c9291e965b4
ORCID for James Davey: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0748-1404

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Date deposited: 19 Oct 2012 13:28
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 11:56

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Author: James Davey ORCID iD
Author: John Coggon

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