Maybe the dogs would prefer to stay alive if they had a choice.

On that note, my gramma-in-law is pissed(& in agony) right now because her DNR was not respected. She is 95yo and suffered a stroke 2 weeks ago. She spent the last 9 months rehabbing a broken hip and said she would not choose to do it again. She is currently drugged to the gills, mostly paralyzed and still manages to cuss & plead for mercy.

Dr Jack Kevorkian should have been lauded, instead he was given jail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kevorkian

When we got Rubu's diagnosis, we knew we only had weeks. He was going through bouts of suffering, but not in real pain, and was "himself". We were able to keep him for two weeks, before the attacks were coming too often and he was truly suffering.

We could have kept him alive. He would have lived maybe hours, maybe weeks, but sooner or later, the cancer was going to kill him. We could have gone into "treatment"... removed his spleen (which might kill him then and there), followed by intensive chemotherapy. That might have gotten him months, but at the cost of great suffering.

We did what was best for him, not for us. If I had my way, he'd be curled up on the couch next to me right now.

Maybe the dogs owners, who think of the dog as family as per the article, would also prefer the dog to stay alive if they had a choice.

I would encourage you to take the time to just consider this in a different way. Animals that are loved are soulish, the incredible (but unfortunately not Catholic) Dr. Hugh Ross makes this easy to understand: http://www.reasons.org/articles/origin-of-soulish-animals. I would simply add that God allows us to form loving bonds with animals to provide a little heaven on earth --a loved [animal of your choice] is heaven on earth. But heaven being heaven, we won't need something as wonderful as our animal friends to make existence better.

Now if the misguided Puritans didn't have their way everybody would be able to die with the amount of dignity they need to make it to the end of the race. Why, because God has provided us with all the tools we need to control pain, but the powers-that-be (really they are the pain-givers either intentionally or just out of ignorance) deny this to us --think about all the places that put people in jail for growing a plant, or otherwise prohibiting scientists to their jobs to make things better.

My inner St Francis tells me that we euthanize animals at the correct time because of our love and respect for them, and there's no consequence for their souls. But for our fellow man, we provide care to its natural end so that we can all live forever.

Frank T. McAndrew did a great job with this article. I think about this stuff all the time because for me it's infinitely interesting, but in my case, I put a Catholic spin on it.

> Now if the misguided Puritans didn't have their way everybody would be able to die with the amount of dignity they need to make it to the end of the race.

It was my understanding that suicide was an irredeemable sin in your religion. Otherwise, why wouldn't every Christian that is convinced they will go to heaven not commit suicide after some form of Room 101-style soul purification? Otherwise you're leaving it up to chance that you'll make an irredeemable mistake in the future.

I don't have any skin in the game, I'm just confused why the most logical course of action wouldn't be to make your path to heaven as fast as possible?

> so that we can all live forever

At what cost?

There's only one way to live forever, and I now know with certainty that commenting on Atheist Central will not get you there, more like lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate.

You swapped a couple letters around there. Haven't seen that line in a long time.