When I was in high school I did a research paper on assisted suicide and it focused heavily on Jack Kevorkian, who at the time was leading the charge for euthanasia in my home state of Michigan. It's something that occurs all the time and that people don't talk about. I know in hospice care, it happens and it shouldn't be something that is "hidden" or "shameful." It should be facilitated properly and above board. Recently I had to put down my dog, Hemingway. It was the hardest thing I've had to do and would have been much more difficult had it not been legal for me to enlist the help of a professional. I had a vet come to our home and I held him while she injected him. He slowly nodded off and died in my arms as I sobbed. It was just me and her. She helped me with his body and gave me a big hug after. I couldn't even speak. It was horrendous. But had I been forced to watch him suffer until he died of his own afflictions, it would have been far worse for both of us. How is it we treat out pets with more dignity than our fellow humans?
I've also had to put down a few pets over the years, and I know the pain all to well at this point. I agree that it's much easier to give them a relatively painless death than to watch them suffer. It makes no sense to delay the inevitable when there are, what I consider to be more humane options available. I'm not entirely sure whether it's a case of people treating pets with more dignity than humans though. I always thought that people held human lives more highly than pet's lives. It seems that we have no right to "play God" and end a human life in the way we would for our pets, even if it's for the right reasons. I can't comprehend why this seems to be the case, but that's how I've had it explained to me over the years.
Wow, tng this is a powerful story. I'm really sorry to hear about Hemingway, and that means something cause I've never owned a dog or anything, so I've never been able to understand the love/connection between a pet and owner. Yet, I genuinely feel how difficult that must've been. Because of that, I think you're totally right about how important the professional assistance was. Not even considering the fact that human pain is so much more complex than that of a dog, and being confined to pain with no relief is one thing but not being allowed relief for no apparent reason.. that should be illegal.