Editor’s note: I almost didn’t write this follow up to “To Die Like a Dog.” I’ve had a longstanding commitment to NOT disclose my personal views to readers. Not to keep my anonymity but to keep my views from swaying reader perception on editorial content. I’m breaking my commitment for the second time in five years only because Part I of this editorial was well received and there seems to be a want for it.
I’m going to be blunt. Under very strict parameters, I believe in assisted suicide and human euthanasia. More in human euthanasia than in assisted suicide, in fact, but unless you’re a death-row inmate, human euthanasia isn’t a remote possibility in this country, so assisted suicide is the next best option…I guess.
It’s called Death with Dignity.
Oregon, Washington, and Vermont are the only states to make assisted suicide completely legal. Montana decriminalized the act, and New Mexico, California, New York, and a few other New England states have it under review.
Rather than rehash all the stats and figures and debates of the Death with Dignity Act when there is numerous and comprehensive articles online, I’d like to move on to my primary argument. And that is we give more liberty and flexibility to the death of a family pet than we do people in this country.
I loved my dog Ruppy with all my heart, and my wife and I did everything we could to sustain her life, but I fully admit that my dog was just a dog whose life was not equal to that of a person’s, yet when her bladder cancer overtook her and her suffering mounted and became too much, not only did we have the freedom to end her life before her suffering worsened, had we not ended it when he did, it would have been considered cruel and inhumane.
Ruppy experienced a steady decline in her health leading up to her passing on the night of Monday, August 17. By her final hours, she’d endured a massive infection (which killed her), excessive bloating of the midsection, considerable weight loss, and seven seizures (as a result of the infection). She was so weak she could not hold her head up, let alone stand, and she had to be fed water with an eyedropper. Her very last meal was probably a gram of rice pudding (her favorite) that she couldn’t even lick on her own.
Were she a human and taken to a hospital, her death would be deemed imminent by a physician, the family informed, “All we can do by this point is give her something for the pain and wait. It’s just a matter of time.” Which sounds okay but opposed to what movies portray, people don’t generally die easy or quick and “a matter of time” is a relative term.
In Ruppy’s condition, we found out, “a matter of time” could have been anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks were she left to pass unassisted. Based on what I mentioned above, could you imagine letting a pet languish the way Ruppy was for a few weeks? Even a few more hours? I’m guessing no. I’m guessing most everyone reading this would’ve put her down.
But humans are told to wait. It’s not okay for a dog to suffer more than we think is humanely acceptable but it is okay for a person to suffer more than we think is humanely acceptable. For what reason?
Imagine this at the other end of the spectrum: a birth.
Birth’s are assisted and thank God for that. But during a birth if the mom or baby starts to have complications, dad is whisked from the room and the doctors and nurses really get busy, helping the mother survive and the baby into this world. Nobody says, “It’s a breech” or “Mom is vagaling out. Well, by this point all we can do is give her something for the pain and wait. It’s just a matter of time.”
That doesn’t happen because we have means to help a baby as easily as possible into this world, just like we have means to easily as possible help someone out of it.
I know some might argue “but a baby is a baby; we have to help.” In my opinion a birth is a symbol of hope while death is a symbol of accomplishment. Both should be treated with equal regard.
Some also might argue that human euthanasia is putting the burden of your death on someone else. I believe it’s just the opposite. We’re expected to live our entire lives making our own decisions for how we live. It’s called responsibility for one’s self. But we’re not allowed to make our decisions for how we die. Human euthanasia or assisted suicide is making us responsible for own death and removing the burden from our loved ones or physicians.
Right now, in the states listed above, if a patient meets the parameters for Death with Dignity, he or she can be prescribed an overdose of barbiturates, usually a 100 pills of secobarbital (or Seconal). Unconsciousness occurs in five minutes, death in 25. So far as I can tell, it’s a hundred percent effective and a far better, more peaceful way to go than wasting away for hours or days.
Ruppy’s experience was even easier. She was first given a sedative and was asleep within a couple minutes. The injection that would take her life was an overdose of an anesthetic, the same anesthetic used on animals during surgery. With the injection, she was dead in about 15 seconds. She was calm, peaceful, and without pain.
The only way for a person to get the same treatment as my dog got to die is to go out and commit such a heinous crime that you need to be put to death for it. But live a decent life, and you get, “It’s just a matter of time.”
So I guess the saying’s meaning is true, only the bad get to die like a dog.
End note: I never mentioned the “strict parameters” I think should apply to assisted suicide or human euthanasia. Go online and review the parameters set by the states that allow it. Mine basically line up. But since I also believe in human euthanasia, I believe a doctor needs to be present and the one who administers the injections, and I think the patient needs to posses signed documentation allowing the injection. I do not believe that the decision should be legally held within anyone other than patient/person.
