Writing 'free' for our newspaper... what the hell?!?

I'm pretty sure you can get a life insurance policy on anyone you want. Don't need their permission.

 

It was CSI Miami ... there are always holes in the story line. At least in this episode they didn't just happen to find an incriminating hair stuck to a drainage pipe in the everglades.

 

I think this is true. Isn't the CSI: Miami plot based on a real-life company - Walmart or AIG or Lehman Brothers, if I recall correctly - doing the same thing with their workers?

 

If this is true, what would prevent anyone from taking out an insurance policy on some terminally-ill stranger and cashing in?

 

Why would the insurance company issue it? I imagine they do it in the case of a large company because they figure they won't have to pay out that many claims, or at least, not enough that the monthly or yearly fee the company is paying would be less than the total paid out. And, uh, sorry to threadjack.

 

Ah, makes some sense for the companies. Seems a little unseemly, though.

And don't worry about the threadjacks. Happens to us all. I once threadjacked a Sarah Palin thread with a reference to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.