The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-05-28
Suicide and Life Insurance.

Many { our exchanges are discussing,
some witt, much and some with very little
apparent information on the subject, the
extent to which life-insrrance companies
should he liable for the ayment of policies
the insured in which die by suicide. Sew
eral, If not all, of the companies return to
the assured in such rases as much as the
premium paid on the policy, or the amount
of the reserve held for it, and some com
Tan'es pay the amount OF the policy with
out any question. The decisions of the
courts have been various in cases which
have been litigated and therefore some
companies pay, pr lerring that course to
one which will involve them in expensive
liwsuils with uncertain resal',. That
suicide Is lrimd tdc{e evidence Of
insanity and that insanity is dis
ease which in such cases causes death,
ows and orphans whose natural protector
has destroyed his own life may be quite
as pressing as the needs of those who are
bereaved by other causes may be also true,
but there are inseparably connected with
this matter questions of public morals and
public policy. That suicide is one of the steps
in many deliberately planned frauds on life
insurance companies is well known to all
who are familiar with the facts, but to
what extent it is employed ms such frauds
Is known TO but few outside of insurance
offices. The difficulty of discriminating
accurately between suicides for the purpose
of fraud and suicides in which the insured
is an innocent victim of uncomfortable dis
ease is apparent, but this furnishes one of
the least important reasons for STIMULATING
in the policy that it will not be paid, and
that all the premium payments previously
ma1a will hp forfaifa6 in hn e ba
suicide of the insured Suicide is crime
for the prevention of which all practicable
means should he employed; and it not I'M
frequently happens that it might be pre-.
vented by the stipulation of HIN who con-
templates it that it should for cit
the provision made for his de, en-
dent family instead of placing them
beyond pecuniary want and relieving
him of burdens which he has not the cour-
age to bear. AS legal proposition it is to
be assumed that all laws are conducive to
the public morals, aid therefore no man
can mature a contract for his own benefit
by the commission of crime. Voluntary
suicide, being crime, cannot properly
mature contract for the benefit of him
who commits it or those in whose behalf
lie made the contract. If the hardship to
the insured who are innocent of the crime
anu no less worthy DeCauSe Ol IL being
pleaded, we admit the hardship, but reply
that it is of less Importance than the public
good. All rules made and observed for the
good of the community bear hardly and
sometimes with apparent injustice upon in
dividuals, but this cannot be avoided and
must be borne for the public veal. That
family should by the same act be de-
prived of its protector and its pecuniary
subsistence is certainly painful but that
disregard Of the sacredness of human life
should be promoted to say nothing of the
encouragement of deliberate fraud by
making such subsistence reward for the
crime of the natural protector of the fami-
ly, is certainly more to be deplored and to
be studiously avoided. Life insurance is
intended to be, and properly conducted is,
benefit to the entire community by its
agency to the prevention of pauperism and
consequent crime, in that it promotes fru-
gality and prudence and secures their re-
suits among class which without this or
some similar guardian of small savings
would be burden to the community and
1t fails in its duty to just the extent that
II fails to exert as much of its influence as
may be practicable for the prevention of
the crime of suicide. -Neao ork HeraM.