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Queensland Australia court decides man cannot inherit after assisting suicide

Mar 21, 2014

 

By Alex Schadenberg, International Chair – Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Merin Nielsen was convicted and jailed for assisting the suicide of a friend, and has now been struck out of the will.  Source: News Limited

Merin Nielsen was convicted and jailed for assisting the suicide of a friend, and has now been struck out of the will.
Source: News Limited

Queensland Australia Chief Justice Paul de Jersey “made legal history,” according to the Herald Sun, when he decided Friday that Merin Nielson, who was convicted for assisting the suicide of his friend, Frank Ward, cannot inherit from the will.

Previously “Only those convicted of murder or manslaughter had previously been barred from benefiting from an estate if named as executors or beneficiaries in their victim’s will,” Kay Dibben reported.

Ward died by assisted suicide in 2009. Nielson, who was convicted of assisted suicide in February 2012, was sentenced to three years but was released in August 2012 after serving 6 months in jail.

According to Dibben

“In 2012 ex-teacher Merin Nielsen became the first Queenslander convicted of assisted suicide, for helping his friend Frank Ward, 76, kill himself at Clayfield in 2009.

“Mr Ward made Nielsen his executor and sole beneficiary of his estate before committing suicide with a drug Nielsen brought back from Mexico.

“Chief Justice Paul de Jersey [Friday] ordered Mr Ward’s estate be distributed to his four surviving relatives, who all live overseas.”

Hopefully this decision will further protect people who are at the lowest point in their life. These people need personal, psychological and medical help, not assisted suicide.

Editor’s note. This appeared at alexschadenberg.blogspot.com.