I was about to give the exact same example of the soldier throwing himself on a grenade. I don’t know where the idea of his actions being “shameful” even comes up.
The one thing I realize from your comment is there’s the dishonesty of his actions, and if lots of people did this insurance companies would start catching on and it would stop working plus it would make life insurance that much harder to work with.
But it didn’t sound like the original post was talking about that with “shameful”, it sounds like they were suggesting (or assuming people would think) that there was something inherently wrong with the man’s altruism. At least that’s what’s implied by the title, “really extreme altruism”.
Edit: I didn’t catch the “Two years after the policy is purchased, it will pay out in the event of suicide.” bit until reading others comments- so, indeed, he’s not being dishonest, he made a bet with the insurance company (over whether he would still intend suicide two years later) and the insurance company lost. I don’t know how many insurance companies have clauses like that, though.
I was about to give the exact same example of the soldier throwing himself on a grenade. I don’t know where the idea of his actions being “shameful” even comes up.
The one thing I realize from your comment is there’s the dishonesty of his actions, and if lots of people did this insurance companies would start catching on and it would stop working plus it would make life insurance that much harder to work with. But it didn’t sound like the original post was talking about that with “shameful”, it sounds like they were suggesting (or assuming people would think) that there was something inherently wrong with the man’s altruism. At least that’s what’s implied by the title, “really extreme altruism”.
Edit: I didn’t catch the “Two years after the policy is purchased, it will pay out in the event of suicide.” bit until reading others comments- so, indeed, he’s not being dishonest, he made a bet with the insurance company (over whether he would still intend suicide two years later) and the insurance company lost. I don’t know how many insurance companies have clauses like that, though.