Should you let a beneficiary prepare your food?

Once you name a person as a beneficiary, be it of a will, life insurance policy, retirement plan, or other arrangement, you  provide that person with an incentive to terminate your functioning as a carbon-based biological unit.

How far do you go in protecting yourself from a potential beneficiary?  Obviously, if you do not tell the person that he or she has been named as a beneficiary, you gain significant protection.

However, in the normal course of events, individuals, especially spouses, are fully aware when they are named as beneficiaries.  Recently, I reported on a case where a husband was arrested for killing his wife while scuba diving.  Engaging in risky activities such as this with a beneficiary could be problematic.  But, what about simply allowing a beneficiary to prepare or serve you food?

On July 2, 2008, James Keown was convicted of first degree murder for killing his wife by poisoning her Gatorade with antifreeze.  He allegedly spiked her drinks over a several month period because he wanted to recover on her life insurance policy worth $250,000 so he could make payments on his debts.

See AP, Man convicted of killing wife with antifreeze, CNN.com, July 3, 2008.

Perhaps the profession of food taster is about to make a comeback.