My wife and I put down our last three family pets (dogs) because they were suffering horribly. Even though they were dogs it was HARD to do because we loved them so much. We still think of them often. We often treat our pets better than we do members of our families.
My Faith says that God is the giver and taker of life, but He also expects me to be as merciful as He is. This court case is one that will be heard more often as medical advances increases longevity but doesn't find treatments for many conditions that end up removing the quality of life in that longivity.
I've seen people wasting away in nursing homes, especially state funded ones, and it amounted to nothing less than legalized torture.
When you are trying to find a place on your back that you can lay on, that isn't covered with painful bed sores, so you can sleep, or, you'd appreciate it if the people who change your catheter used aseptic techniques so that your urine doesn't contain blood and puss, or the food given you tasted more like the box than the contents, and the nursing home administrator captured all of your remaining assets to "pay" for that miserable treatment .... It is nothing for cheap nursing homes to cost more than $4K or $5K a month. One could rent a room at the Holiday Inn and get excellent daily room service and a free Continental breakfast, access to health equipment and a swimming pool for less than what many cheap nursing homes charge.
Personally, I am glad they gave him unsupervised probation. He's 86. Where's he going? What is he going to be doing? Mostly thinking of how soon he will be joining his wife in a place where all tears shall be wiped away and there will be no more pain and suffering. Or, for those who do not believe in God, oblivian.
