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Can you trust a man who doesn't trust his wife?
I owe that line to Robin Hanson. Here is the latest:
Six weeks after Bruce E. Ivins killed himself, the cremated remains of Mr. Ivins, the Army scientist and anthrax suspect, are stored at a funeral home here, awaiting the outcome of an unusual probate court proceeding.
...Dr. Ivins wrote of his wish to be cremated and have his ashes scattered. But fearing that his wife, Diane, and their two children might not honor the request, he came up with a novel way to enforce his demand: threatening to make a bequest to an organization he knew his wife opposed, Planned Parenthood.
“If my remains are not cremated and my ashes are not scattered or spread on the ground, I give to Planned Parenthood of Maryland” $50,000, Dr. Ivins wrote in the will. Court records value the estate at $143,000.
Ms. Ivins is a former president of Frederick County Right to Life, according to F.B.I. records.
The NYT article concludes (do they ever write contingent contracts?):
The will adds another stroke to the portrait that has emerged from F.B.I. records of Dr. Ivins, an anthrax specialist at the Army’s biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick, in Maryland, as quirky and mentally troubled.
His wife, at least, says he is innocent. What would you think of a man who wrote such a contract?
Posted by Tyler Cowen on September 13, 2008 at 08:14 AM in Law | Permalink
Comments
About the same as what I would think of a man who wrote a pre-nuptial contract: sometimes it's just common sense.
If people can get away with ignoring your wishes, they very often will, and that is often especially true of the people closest to you. A professional engaged to fulfill the terms of a posthumous contract would simply shrug and do it; a family member might think that he or she knows better and should decide what's best for you. They often interfere in ways that they wouldn't dare to do if they were dealing with a stranger, even while you're still alive and able to object.
Posted by: at Sep 13, 2008 8:53:20 AM
You can say that, at least, he had a bad marriage. But is that a risk factor for being a mass murderer? It's a weak one, if it is, since I know a lot of people who hate their spouses, and I don't think they've killed anyone (yet).
Posted by: jason voorhees at Sep 13, 2008 9:06:57 AM
Anyone who specialises in the military uses of anthrax is likely to be a bit unusual. But this will provision looks like a side product of a long standing and probbly cherished arguement with his wife. It does not begin to be evidence in the case.
Posted by: Diversity at Sep 13, 2008 10:04:48 AM
What would you think of a man who wrote such a contract?
I would think he reads Marginal Revolution and learned that dead people don't count in the social welfare function.
Posted by: Bob Murphy at Sep 13, 2008 10:09:16 AM
It's not just spouses. Look at Nabokov.
Posted by: Real Andrew at Sep 13, 2008 10:10:52 AM
Bob beat me to it while I was typing.
Posted by: Real Andrew at Sep 13, 2008 10:15:15 AM
Sounds to me like a man who hedges his bets.
He should run for President.
Posted by: Robert Olson at Sep 13, 2008 10:27:33 AM
What would I think of him? I'd think he was awesome and his wife was a shrew.
Seriously, this is some food for thought.
Posted by: nicole at Sep 13, 2008 11:36:23 AM
I think the question is comparable to "what would you think of a man who wrote 'Megan uses the word policy but mostly her post is about personal obligation'." It is a question that is slyly suggestive of "bad things" in a very gossipy way. I _will_ suggest that my respect for this blog has been diminished by this post.
Posted by: Peter Harbeson at Sep 13, 2008 11:37:47 AM
Can you trust a man who doesn't trust his wife?
Can a trustworthy man have an untrustworthy wife? Can a trustworthy woman have an untrustworthy husband?
Obviously yes.
Another question is what is the boundary between precaution and mistrust? How much trust do human beings deserve, and is not extending that level of trust a character flaw?
Is a prenuptial agreement a character flaw?
One of the most common causes of AIDS worldwide, is adulterous men passing HIV to their wives. A relationship where there are strong social pressures to be "moral" and extend trust, so the wives have difficulty negotiating condom usage.
If this is the case, isn't engaging in social shaming against marital precautions the genuine charter flaw?
Posted by: Jason Malloy at Sep 13, 2008 1:00:20 PM
What contract?
Posted by: Vernunft at Sep 13, 2008 1:04:21 PM
Can you trust a man who doesn't trust his wife?
This has nothing to do with trusting his wife, but of the executor of the will. Trust would mean that his wife agreed to cremate him, but that he didn't take her at her word. More than likely, he told her he wanted to be cremated on death. She told him, she would bury him and would absolutely not cremate him. I willing to bet that there's a religious aspect to this, mainly because of the planned parenthood donation. He goes to put it in his will, and his lawyer tells him it doesn't matter what he puts the executor will side with his wife. To counteract this he puts a clause in there.
In short, he trusts his wife to do exactly what she told him she would do. A lack of trust would imply that his wife said she'd respect his wishes, but he didn't trust that she would so put the clause in his will as insurance. We can't know either scenario for sure, but we can't assume a lack of trust based on the evidence presented.
Posted by: JordanT at Sep 13, 2008 2:40:27 PM
No man trusts his wife. The real question is should we trust a man who claims to trust his wife--he is clearly a liar. Perhaps another question is why the hell he cares what happens to his body once he dies.
Posted by: MS at Sep 13, 2008 3:34:54 PM
Tyler,
Your question is naive. Can every person accurately assess the honesty, dependability, and other character traits of a prospective spouse? No, of course not. Look at all the studies on deception. We know only a very small fraction of the population is skilled at detecting lies.
Posted by: Randall Parker at Sep 13, 2008 4:15:51 PM
Well, when you phrase it *that* prejudicially...
Yes, when you phrase it that prejudicially I have to wonder what a man is doing committing his life to someone whom he cannot trust. It suggests either that his judgment about people had been very wrong at some point, or that his notion of marriage encompasses distrust and deceit. If the former, he may well have improved; this raises complex questions about why he is still married, but there are answers to those questions which would not imply I should distrust him. If the latter, I don't care whether I trust him or not, because I find him despicable.
Posted by: Andromeda at Sep 13, 2008 5:02:46 PM
The person who said he should run for president is funny.
One could also say it evidences a healthy respect for the rule of law. After all, he didn't threaten his wife that an agent of his would expose her to anthrax if she failed to cremate him and scatter his ashes.
A related question of interest to me from a cog sci perspective is why people tend to desire to be buried, mummified, or cremated, and what the distribution of those beliefs are across individuals and cultures -and why? I suspect the buried urge may be pre-human, are they all sociobiological?
Posted by: Hopefully Anonymous at Sep 13, 2008 5:35:25 PM
I'm just wondering where that $50,000 to Planned Parenthood goes if he gets cremated. I am assuming his wife and kids? I am looking at it from the glass-half-full perspective. Ivins says: "If you cremate me, you'll get another 50,000. If you don't, you lose it, and it goes to Planned Parenthood."
At any rate I think of course you can trust a man who doesn't trust his wife to echo what Jason said. There are plenty of reasons other than love/trust/affection that people get married and stay married. Who are we to say Ivins was being irrational by getting married/staying married to her? Might have made monetary and economic sense to do so. Or maybe he settled. Or had the herp. Or maybe she did something to break his trust.
Posted by: pants at Sep 13, 2008 8:34:21 PM
Apparently, some judge decided that Leona Helmsley's bequest to animal shelters was innapropriate, and gave it to her disliked grand-children instead. While Helmesley may have ideally patched things up with her family before she passed, it's not right for the judge to treat it as if it's his money to allocate.
One should do whatever is sufficient to ensure that her will is upheld. But best to do so by choosing a respectful spouse, rather than manipulating, post-mortem, a spouse whom you suspect might ignore your wishes.
Posted by: Adina at Sep 14, 2008 3:22:04 AM
I defer to Jason's particular knowledge of the murderer mind.
Maybe he's worried future investigators will find specific antibodies to a specific strain of anthrax or something. As they say, don't get the ball to the one yard line and let someone else fumble it. In other words, when things get critical, trust no one. On the other hand, why would he care about his reputation after he commits suicide?
Posted by: Andrew at Sep 14, 2008 5:30:59 AM
"What would you think of a man who wrote such a contract? "
That he's a control-freak asshole, both alive and dead. HIs wife should set the corpse on fire, and then use an electric fan to blow him around the beach. Or did he injest anthrax, and sought to spread the poison in his ashes?
Posted by: Rachel Cohen at Sep 14, 2008 12:51:17 PM
Maybe I am just naive but, without any other knowledge of the man, I would think that someone who wrote a will like that had a great sense of humour.
Posted by: jpp at Sep 14, 2008 4:56:49 PM
The behavior of people in times of stress (e.g. the death of a family member) can be enormously erratic. In my own circle of friends disagreements about where someone will be buried, the disposition of items with marginal sentimental value, etc. have all caused significant grief and frequent reconsideration of promises to the deceased in favor of wishes of the living. He sounds pretty rational to me.
That said, I'd trust my wife completely and assume if she didn't honor my wishes that there's a good rational behind it.
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