title: Entrepreneurial "mining" of the dying: viatical transactions, tax strategies and mind games.
abstract: Conceptually, entrepreneurship is seen as the engine that drives a robust economy, promotes a favorable quality of life, and assures the availability of the attributes needed for meaningful living. However, like many popular concepts in this world, its limitations are normally not well acknowledged. A grouping of entrepreneurial ventures which as recently come into existence deals with the personal fiscal issues associated with the end-of-life phase of the human cycle. While generally praised as humanitarian services for society, that are assuredly within legal bounds, these activities have potentially significant negative implications. When examined from an ethical perspective, some questionable practices became apparent. Three such undertakings in particular have to do with the terminally ill and are examined in this paper. The first, viatical transactions, is defined as the transfer of a life insurance policy's ownership to someone who does not have an insurable interest in the life of the insured individual. The second, creative tax shelters for wealthy people involved in estate planning, involves hiring unrelated parties, particularly those who are young and in failing health, to do the dying for the principal. The third, mind games, involves curtailing the use of medical resources for the dying. The justification for this is rationing scarce medical resources.
authors.affiliation: Baruch College (CUNY), USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trinkaus
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Giacalone
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003068:Coercion; D016520:Entrepreneurship; D005376:Financial Management / Q000191:economics; D005382:Financing, Personal; D005607:Fraud; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007352:Insurance, Life / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008020:Life Support Care; D013660:Taxes; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000191:economics; D019452:Terminally Ill; D016312:Treatment Refusal / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States