Article on Application of the Slayer Statute to Cases of Assisted Suicide

Ryan Konsdorf & Scott Alden Prulhiere (Arizona State University) recently published an article entitled, Killing Your Chances of Inheriting: The Problem with the Application of the Slayer Statute to Cases of Assisted Suicide, 39 ACTEC Law Journal No. 3 (Winter 2013).  Provided below is an excerpt from the introduction:

Whether garnering growing public support and empathy, or spawning negative backlash and legal reaction, assisted suicide is a topic that has been thrust into the limelight in the last few decades.1 While adjudicating the criminality and morality of such an act is beyond the scope and focus of this paper, the issue’s growing presence is undeniably going to impact legal doctrine reexamination moving forward. The focus of this paper is on the effects of assisted suicide with regard to the law of succession. Namely, our discussion will center on the treatment of knowing participants in assisted suicide and participants in mercy killings,2 and such a participants’ subsequent legal right to inherit from the recent decedent.