wills

Speaking of Wills (I’m Searching for One Now)…”The Ethicist” Wants a Word

/ Jack Marshall / 6 Comments

Well, the world here at Westminster Place is getting grimmer and more desperate by the second, so I’m escaping to my office for a nonce to see if a break helps. As it happens, our old friend “The Ethicist,” Kwame Anthony Appiah, had a recent exchange involving death-related matters, and I didn’t care much for his analysis.

But what do I know? I couldn’t even figure out that my wife needed to go to the hospital regardless of what her protestations when in fact she was dying…

But I digress. A questioner asked the Times Magazine’s resident ethics advice columnist (and the fourth to hold The Ethicist title) whether his plan of “giving half of my inheritance to my brother without telling him of his exclusion from [their father’s] will, sparing him any additional hurt feelings,” would be ethical. Mad Dad is 90, the inquiring son is the executor of the father’s will, and he has seen that his brother has been cut out..

His question concludes, “Would this be ethical, or does the need for truth override my plan? To be clear, I would not lie. This would be more a misdirection by omission.”

Continue reading →

Ethics Problems I Hadn’t Given Much Thought To Dept.: Bela’s Dilemma

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

Bela

Bela is a 9-year-old German Shepherd, and apparently a healthy one.

Unfortunately, Bela’s owner, Connie Ley, isn’t healthy. In fact, she’s dead. But Connie loved Bela, and provided for her in her will. The provision: Bela could either be adopted by one of Connie’s friends (That’s out: the friend doesn’t want her), euthanized, cremated and buried along with Ley, or sent to a no-kill animal sanctuary to live out her days in comfort. I may be presumptuous here, but I think I know which of these options Bela would prefer. It’s not her call, however. The executor of the will gets to make the choice, and he or she is reportedly leaning to having Bela killed.

The Best Friends Animal Society  is working on trying to convince the will’s executor to allow Bela to live, and be brought to the group’s facilities in southern Utah joining some 1,700 other cats, dogs, horses, pigs, birds and other animals.  There she would be available for adoption, and if not adopted, cared for, if not exactly the center of attention in a loving family. Better than being buried like a cat mummy with a Pharaoh, though, I’d think. One problem is that while the will identifies Best Friends as an option, there are no provisions in it to compensate the group, and Ley had never contacted it before she died. Another problem is that Bela was a one-woman dog. That, however, can usually be changed with love, patience, and time. Many dog lovers seem willing to make the effort. Continue reading →