The Ultimate Put-Down

We put down pets in final throes
With sadness but without remorse.
To hasten pain-racked kin’s repose,
We don’t let nature run its course.
We drug them under hospice care,
And of their end, they’re unaware.

So why can’t patients make the choice
Between assisted suicide
And suffering? Have they less voice
Than Fido as to how he died?
A stricken dog or cat may drown
If masters fail to put it down.

I think religion plays some part,
But what of us who don’t believe
A God should have so cold a heart
To listen to a family’s grieve
Protracted pain, a long-last hug,
Before He finally pulls the plug?

Physicians, too, might take some pride
In putting off that final breath,
Which Doctor Jack could not abide.
Kevorkian, jailed as Doctor Death,
Who sped folks to the Promised Land,
Is dead without a helping hand.