“Bodie is getting dead.”
Those were the words out of my 4-year-old’s mouth as the vet was on her way to our house to put down our 15-year-old German Shepard.
While this event was traumatic enough, within 12 hours, my children came face to face with yet another death. We noticed buzzards circling in the backyard, and when the kids went to see what had happened, the only thing left was a cat’s tail. 10-month-old kitten Queen Elsa was dead.
Due to these two events, the last 24 hours has been a pretty sad period over at the Ameduri home, with the topic of death front and center. As far as the dog, the kids asked a dozen times why we didn’t just let Bodie pass — why did the vet have to give him a shot? We explained that it was the humane thing to do, and that by doing so we helped our dog avoid the pain of not being able to walk, use the restroom, and potentially even starvation due to a loss of appetite.
It’s funny, I’ve never given much thought about the right to death debate, but as I was explaining why it was humane to kill our dog, I couldn’t help but think about why it wouldn’t be just as humane to allow a person to do the same if they so desired. While I’m not going to open up that can of worms, I started to appreciate the notion that individuals should have the freedom to chose how they want to end their own lives.