ethics and such.

I watched entirely too many episodes of Weeds this weekend. I also just got an email from my mother that may or may not have read that tomorrow they'll be putting down my childhood dog, Brandy. These two situation are largely unrelated except that in one of the episodes the grandmother is suffering from a terminal disease and the family argues over pulling the ventilator plug and ending her life -- not unlike euthanizing a pet.

Although there are obvious differences between a pet and a human being, I'm slightly confused as to why putting a pet out of its misery is widely accepted and doing the same for a human is punishable in a court of law. I would argue that a human is much more cognizant of his / her state of suffering than a dog. I'm not solidly for or against the long-fought issues of assisted suicide, but the standards seem a little off and I certainly don't think that a healthy, pain free judge has any right to decide whether or not my conditions are bearable.

Eh, just ranting. Not too happy that the dog I had since I was 8 suffered two torn ACLs in one week.


bk