Linda Schunk and her daughter may have acted “unlawfully” in helping her husband to kill himself. But according to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, that doesn't mean they cannot inherit his property.

Edward Schunk, who was terminally ill with cancer, left most of his $488,000 estate to his wife and their daughter Megan after shooting himself in January 2006. Five of his older children from other relationships contested the will under Wisconsin's slayer statute, which says the “unlawful and intentional killing of the decedent” revokes any inheritance for the killer.

Wisconsin also has made it a crime to assist another to commit suicide. Linda and Megan allegedly drove Edward to his Stanley, Wisc., home from the hospital, helped him inside a cabin on the property, gave him a loaded shotgun and left.

But the appeals court agreed with a trial judge that the slayer statute does not apply to Linda and Megan because “'unlawful and intentional killing' within the meaning of this statute does not include assisting another to commit suicide.”

The dictionary definition of “kill” is “to deprive of life,” Judge Margaret J. Vergeront explained in the decision, and, “As the assumed facts in this case illustrate, providing Edward with a loaded shotgun did not deprive him of his life: he deprived himself of life by shooting himself with the shotgun.”

While the other children contend that Linda and Megan acted unlawfully in assisting a suicide, Vergeront continued, the words “unlawful” and “intentional” in the slayer statute

modify “killing” by limiting its meaning. If, as we have concluded, assisting another to commit suicide is not “killing” another, it does not become so because the conduct is unlawful and intentional.

Pro-lifers have reacted furiously to the decision, saying it would encourage those with a financial interest in someone's death to help that person commit suicide. “For the protection of our citizens, the state should not provide a financial motive to those who participate in a suicide," the executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life said in a news release.

An attorney for Megan Schunk called the case a “one-in-a-million situation” and said he doubted the ruling would have a broad impact. Megan and her mother have denied that they assisted in Edward Schunk's suicide.

“Viewed most favorably to Linda and Megan,” the appeals court said, “the evidence shows that Edward drove himself to the cabin, taking his gun and hunting bag, and they did not know that he intended to commit suicide.”

By Matthew Heller
9/29/08