subject: Euthanasia, Death and Grieving [print this page] Last week a woman whose dog I had been treating rang me up. Sadly, her pet had not pulled through and had died.
But her passing had been easy, quick and gentle. She had simply settled in her bed, apparently gone to sleep, and stopped breathing.
Understandably, the woman was very upset. But by the next day, she was much better.
This week, a horse I had been treating, was destroyed.
I am still grieving, days later and she wasnt even mine.
Over the years, I have had many pets kindly put to sleep by those I thought knew better than I. And I can say that with each one, I grieved for days.
Since becoming a homeopath, I now know of homeopathic medicines that not only take away the fear of approaching death, but the pain of end stage disease, too.
If an animal is not in pain or fear, why would I now want to consider euthanasia, at a humane level?
Now, it is my custom to provide that relief in hopeless cases, rather than make a final decision. To give them a homeopathic medicine that supports them in their decision. And I have never regretted it.
But the interesting thing is that, although Im obviously sad to see the animal go, my grieving is of short duration. Normally just a day.
Whats going on?
Why do I grieve for days for a horse whos not even mine, but not for my own animals?
I feel it comes down to freedom of choice. As I believe everyone (including animals) chooses when we are born, dont we then have a right to choose when we die?
If I have decided not to kill an animal, but instead, provide support, so they can choose, if and when they die, I have an inner feeling I have done the right thing. My body reflects that.
If I, or someone else, decides to kill an animal, then I feel a freedom has been violated and so the grieving is not so easy to work through. Perhaps its a double grieving.
I believe it takes a shift in consciousness to think this way. And we need to keep shifting and growing and evolving. I do know that I used to be very much in favour of, what I considered to be, humane euthanasia. Homeopathy has changed all that, as it has many things in my life.
I cant say how I would feel in all cases, I can only comment on my changing attitudes with what I have experienced.
But I do believe there is much more to taking a life, even for humane reasons, than we currently realise. And Im not at all convinced we should, in any case. Especially when we have access to such effective alternatives.
Authors note - this topic discussed in this article is best dealt with by professional homeopaths.
