A dog's life

My husband is currently trying to find a way to save our dog's life. He is ten and has been sick for about a week now. It is nothing new for a dog to vomit. However, he fell over and the emergency clinic says he is in shock and may or may not have liver cancer. Any further testing would require $$$$$$ or they would be happy to put him down if we could not afford it.

My husband left for a second opinion, as he watched the only other people in the office (1:00 am) make the decision to put their dog down. He said he felt they were in the business of killing dogs, not helping them.

We may ultimately have to make that decision but we would rather do it at home, by our own vet, and knowing that we did everything we could afford.

This life or death decision for animals is often a financial one and it is sad. But at least he had ten years which is pretty good for a dog.

But our own human health care system does that. I am faced right now with losing all my teeth because I cannot afford implants. I am being denied by my insurance company treatment for my degenerative disc disease in my back. I was also denied treatment for infertility, which left us with a hefty debt, partly from treatment and partly from adoption expenses. We are headed firmly down the path of bankrupcy, so honestly I would save my dog if we could even find the credit to do that and give me teeth.

And so many people are worse off yet. They cannot get any medical treatment. In a more humane world life would not come with such a price tag on it. If you listen to Mr Huckabee and Ms Angle they do not think insurance companies should be forced to stick money into already sick people. Mike went as far as to compare human life to a burned out home.
Yet I think he is a pro-lifer. Go figure.

But I agree. Insurance companies should not. They should not be in the picture. They should not be the middleman. There should be single payer. Some think that would cause rationed health care for the elderly. But all the government DOES not is care for the elderly. I would just like to see that care extended to everyone, and the unborn would have a better world to be born into.

So far nobody has been asked to put their human loved ones down. But denying coverage just makes them die slowly and painfully. We actually do treat dogs better than that.

So at least our poor dog is better off. He is better off not knowing there may have been treatments out there but were denied because a veterinarian would rather put a lethal injection in him than perform some work for less money. And he is also better off if it turns out no amount of treatment would actually make him better, just prolong the inevitable leaving him to suffer until the end, but he does not actually have to do that. There is the lethal injection option that should only have to be used in this cases, when it is the right thing to do morally and not financially