Proponents of legal assisted suicide are always talking about how we put our pets down rather than allow them to suffer. Years ago, Stephen Drake put that argument to sleep for anyone who actually stops to think:
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/lets_put_this_pet_theory_to_sleep/
But there is another side to that story. More and more people are buying wheelchairs and other equipment to allow elderly and handicapped dogs and cats, who would previously have been euthanized, to live longer and better lives.
This blog post captures the bewilderment and hurt, in the face of this phenomenon, of people with disabilities, who hear, even from relatives, statements such as one of True Dignity’s board members (who has no disability but is elderly) recently heard from her own sister, in defense of assisted suicide: “I don’t want to be an invalid.” http://www.davehingsburger.blogspot.ca/2014/08/a-dogs-valued-life-im-envious.html
We will write more at a future date about increasingly coercive pressure on the elderly and terminally ill and people with disabilities not to accept life-prolonging care.
What, we ask, is so bad, about being an invalid, at whatever time in life? If it isn’t bad for a dog, why is it bad for a person? What is becoming of us, that we don’t want to care for people as we do our beloved pets but just want them to die and spare us the cost and trouble, even if getting them out of the way means we aiding them in committing suicide.
This is so very sad.
