Murder is murder

     "That reminds me," put in Parker, "suppose the great-niece is excluded from the inheritance, where does the money go?"

    "It goes to the Duchy of Lancaster - or in other words, to the Crown."

    "In fact," said Wimsey, "to no one in particular. Upon my soul, I really can't see that it's very much of a crime to bump a poor old thing off a bit previously when she's sufferin' horribly, just to get the money she intends you to have. Why should the Duchy of Lancaster have it? Who cares about the Duchy of Lancaster? It's like defrauding the Income Tax."

    "Ethically," observed Mr. Murbles, "there may be much to be said for your point of view. Legally, I am afraid, murder is murder, However frail the victim or convenient the result."

    "And Agatha Dawson didn't want to die," added Parker, "she said so."

    "No," said Wimsey, thoughtfully, "and I suppose she had a right to an opinion."

(from Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers)