[coffeecrazy1]

Due to the nature of my family situation, I have had to deal with the deterioration of several family members in the past few years(five different people, I think). After watching the person that we loved fade into oblivion, and be replaced by someone who doesn't recognize us or know what day it is, and seeing the toll it took on my parents to have to deal with that, I can say with no hesitation that faster is better. It was sad when they died, sure...and hard to see them go, but sadness was competing with relief at that point...and who wants people to be relieved that they are dead?

It boils down to quality of life. Everyone slows down as they age, but until recently, there was only so much modern medicine could do to prolong life. Now, we are able to sustain people in bodies and minds that are long-since used up.

Do I condone euthanasia? No. But do I think that we should use machines to force people in their eighties and nineties to breathe and eat food, when they would have simply passed on years before if not for them? Absolutely not. I couldn't stand being laid up for two months with my ankle recovering from surgery...I can't imagine enduring years of invalidity...seems like one concept of hell to me.

It's just funny to me that we don't let our pets suffer the same way we let our human loved ones suffer...seems a bit out of whack.