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]