THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION:
 
EUTHANASIA:
 
Sick ferrets die.  I imagine most ferret deaths that are not due to
accidental injury occur to sick ferrets.  Simply placing a ferret in
a hospital cage creates the unspoken implication that death is a
possibility.  This brings up a series of unspoken questions every owner
of every sick ferret will ultimately have to answer.  When do I let go?
Should I let death progress naturally, or should I fight it every step of
the way?  At what point does veterinary measures exact a higher price to
the ferret than it is worth?  Sooner or later the ferret will pass on,
and there will be other questions as well.  What should be done with a
deceased ferret?  Are there laws that regulate what I can do with a
deceased ferret?  Finally, there are the practical questions of what
should be done with the hospital cage.
 
Deciding when to let go and how to go about it is probably one of the
hardest questions a ferret owner can face.  I know it is for me, and
it hits me particularly hard because I force myself to answer moral
and ethical questions that are often in conflict with my own personal
feelings.  I find it extremely difficult to consider shortening the life
of ANY creature; I even carry spiders outside and put them in bushes to
hide them from birds.  How can I contemplate ending the existence of a
sweet little thing whose entire life has been spent bringing me joy?  The
process of death can be painful or frightening, and moral considerations
may goad me towards relieving that suffering, and ethical considerations
may demand it.  Yet, my heart may be crying out for just one more day,
just one more affectionate lick placed tenderly on my hand, one more soft
nuzzling into my shirt.  As the ferret begins to slip away, I am forced
to reconcile my emotions with my duty as a caregiver, and I am obliged to
make those hard decisions of life and death.
 
No one else can make this decision.  Some may consider my reluctance to
end the life of a beloved ferret to be selfish, prolonging the suffering
of a devoted companion.  Others may be horrified that I would even
contemplate helping my ferret slip the bonds of life, considering any
euthanizing effort to be morally repugnant.  Regardless of what others
might believe, the only opinion that counts is the one that belongs to
the ferret's caregiver.
 
I use three quality of life criteria to help guide my decision.
Is the ferret in protracted pain that cannot be resolved with standard
veterinary techniques?  Is the ferret alert or aware of their
environment?  Can the ferret care for itself?
 
Once I define those questions, I ask one more: is there any hope?  If
I am convinced there is no hope left, and I suspect the quality of life
has deteriorated to a point where the ferret is being sustained for my
benefit only, then I ask a final question: is the ferret struggling for
life?  For me, this last question is paramount; if the ferret really
wants to be alive, I feel I have to respect those desires.  The bottom
line comes down to this: whatever determination you make in these
circumstances is unique to your own situation, so no one else has the
right to judge that decision provided you make it in an ethical and
moral fashion.
 
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 4414]