Thursday, December 17, 2009

You Shouldn’t Have to be Euthanized Because You're Different

Blogging about the culture of death doesn’t make for cheery reading, especially around Christmastime.

Perhaps telling you about Faith will provide a different perspective.

Faith was born without two limbs, and was immediately rejected and abused by her mother. Faith was unable to fight back. Her early weeks were a nightmare. There was nobody to help.

Everything about Faith meant that she, from the beginning, had a poor quality of life.

Rejected by her mother.

Abused by her mother.

Two limbs gone, a double whammy.

She’d never get those limbs back. Her future meant looking very different than others, unable to do things that others took for granted, and she would need to be cared for differently than those with all their limbs.

If the pro-death crowd has their way, euthanasia would be the easy answer for cases like Faith, especially if the radicals succeed in getting us to believe that we should euthanize those who might suffer in their future.

But that’s not the end of the story, because Faith was rescued by someone who believed that while she couldn’t be fixed, she most definitely could be helped.

Fast forward several years:

While Faith never got her limbs back, she has a great life. Faith is loved and clearly an inspiration to all her meet her. She astounds people with how she has adapted to a life without limbs. Her family can’t imagine life without her.

All this would have not happened if she had been euthanized just in case she might suffer because of her limbless condition.

I’m so glad Faith is with us to inspire all those who meet her.

Faith is a dog with no front legs.

She’s also a minor celebrity because she walks upright - just like humans do. She’s been on Montel and Oprah, and gone on tour with Ozzy Osbourne. When she’s not being a media star, she brings joy to many, especially in cheering our injured war vets who have lost limbs - just like her.

A legless dog with a powerful lesson for the pro-death lobby:

Being different doesn’t mean you should die.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry but making a logical jump describing a dog with disabilities being abused by her owner in one breath is about a terrible person who is a criminal and should be prosecuted for animal abuse. Period. How do you possibly jump from that to saying there are some how people standing ready to jump in at that moment and "euthanize" a child (not a dog)with disabilities? This makes no sense at all . . . radicals are child abusers? Radicals are dog abusers? Conservatives love animals more? Conservatives support PETA? How can you take a terrible story about a terrible abuse of a precious dog and then use it abusively yourself to suggest that people you disagree with politically (isn't that what elections are for?) are somehow the same as this dog abuser? That's really low and very unchristian.

Dr. Mark Mostert said...

Anonymous, maybe you should read the news report that was linked in the post - the abuser was the puppy's mother, not a human. Faith was rejected and attacked by her (canine) mother.

After we've settled that, perhaps I'll find your rant a little more persuasive.

Thanks for stopping by

Anonymous said...

Some human beings do react like the canine mother whose puppy was born "too different" for her.
Their emotionality is the same.
Some of these cases even kill their own children for being "too different" from themselves.

Less extreme cases react like a dog that growls at strangers for being strange.

When I say that prejudice is a beast I do mean what I say.


And I say something else:
Something that many disabled people would agree with:

"Don't put me out of your misery."

Anonymous said...

Some people do react like the rejective canine mother whose puppy was "too different" for her.

People like that have killed their own offspring for the same (unreasoning!!!)"reasons" that the dog would have killed hers.

More typical prejudice reacts like a dog that growls at nonthreatening "strangers" for simply being "strange."

Although this dog's human counterparts are equally bothered by the "stranger's" presence I still say in plain words:

"Don't put me out of your misery."