In quite a few blog posts (example; example; example; example; example; example), I have analogized the end-of-life treatment of animals and human beings. Dr. Gifford-Jones proposes a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Humans. The name is wonderful, though he apparently intends only "an organization that would ask legislators to pass laws similar to those used in Holland and Switzerland where lethal injection is controlled and allowed." My impression is that Compassion & Choices is this organization.
Dr. Gifford-Jones has "often written that if [he] were allowed a committee to oversee [his] final hours, [he would] want a veterinarian to be part of that group."
He is hoping that they would treat him the same way as Debbie, who was the world's oldest polar bear at Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo. Late last year (right before I happened to visit Winnipeg), due to a number of strokes, zoo keepers decided Debbie had suffered enough and painlessly ended her life.
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