Murder or suicide?

[Itshim]

The assisted dying bill.
Looking at my life insurance policies, it will not pay out in the case of suicide. So the question is what would insurance companies call assisted dying. your choice so is it suicide or as a doctor did it a kind of murder, see a legal nightmare ahead

[thenry]

I'd say mutual agreement to pass from this earth which voids any involuntary death.

[papa smurf]

The bill will probably not pass because mp's are only interested in their own jobs and won't ruffle any feathers, but legalised assisted death is still suicide in my eyes as it's a personal decision.

[Russ]

I work for a large insurance company, and the life insurance side of the business is watching all this very closely. Word is that any indication of assisted dying will be a policy exclusion.

Originally Posted by Russ

I work for a large insurance company, and the life insurance side of the business is watching all this very closely. Word is that any indication of assisted dying will be a policy exclusion.

You would expect that, but probably should have an exemption if it's someone simply bringing forward their death by a few months.

If someone is dying from ALS, it would seem cruel to deny them their payout unless they let themselves choke to death as their windpipe fails rather than take an injection a few months/weeks prior.

I assume there is already a precedent for this for those who've gone to Sweden for this?

As for the bill, I am supportive of the concept, but I think this bill needs to fail. It's a badly thought-out mess. Rather typical of the lack of any direction or planning from this Government.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Damien

You would expect that, but probably should have an exemption if it's someone simply bringing forward their death by a few months.

I’d say it’s unlikely. In the world of insurance you can never say never but life insurance policies will be worded around “natural or non-induced death”. So even if someone has terminal cancer to the point of receiving end-of-life care, a policy would not pay out if the passing was induced in any way.

Originally Posted by Damien

I assume there is already a precedent for this for those who've gone to Sweden for this?

To date none of my employer’s customers have done this (unless it was well-covered up, something I can’t even to begin to think how it could be done).

My work provides (us) "terminal illness" insurance, which that pays out early for terminal diseases, cancer being the obvious one.

Looking at the L&G site (as an example) they include this as standard on life policies > 2 years.

Terminal Illness Cover could pay out the full amount of cover if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness (when life expectancy is less than 12 months) during your period of cover.

Terminal Illness Cover is automatically included at no extra cost on all our life cover policies with a term of at least 2 years, and is available to all those who are eligible to claim.

I wonder how assisted dying would figure into this.

[Russ]

Insurance companies tend to love words such as “could”, “might”, “may” etc and that’s where I see most stumbling blocks presenting themselves.

Originally Posted by Itshim

The assisted dying bill.
Looking at my life insurance policies, it will not pay out in the case of suicide. So the question is what would insurance companies call assisted dying. your choice so is it suicide or as a doctor did it a kind of murder, see a legal nightmare ahead

It is assisted suicide. Despite Kim Death-Eater disliking the term, the bill has the effect (amongst other things) of amending the Suicide Act so someone assisting another to die is not, subject to conditions, committing a crime. She prefers ‘assisted dying’ because even she knows it’s a hard sell without assistance from a euphemism.

It is not murder, which is a common law offence in which one person kills another unlawfully (i.e. common law acknowledges that there are legal reasons why one person might kill another). As a common law offence there is no Murder Act in English law. Lawful and unlawful killing of others is defined in legal precedent and other legislation.