Mercy Killing

[Guest guest]

Is mercy killing ever appropriate?

 

Good question, and one which has been with me for many years. I remember in

the Manor in about '78 there was a calf born with deformed legs, his /her (I

cant remember which one it was) lower legs were bent backwards below the

knee joint. They tried putting splints and all sorts of ways to straighten

the legs, but nothing worked. Eventualy after sometime hobbling around on

its knees, the bones started to show through and protrude. I remember

visiting this poor unfortunate calf, everyday, and feeling so helpless

seeing its agonising plight, it seemed so cruel to let this continue and to

see this doe eyed creature in such a condition (I hope I am not making

anyone cry here).

 

The devotees were almost paralysed. they did not know what to do. It seemed

so cruel to keep it alive, but we couldnt kill it.

 

Anyway it was taken out of our hands, apparently the vet took it into his

own hands and killed it with an injection.

 

There was another post wherein Srila Prabhupada says we are not to perform

mercy killings. These were mentioned in the context of a conversation on the

principle. Does anyone know if Srila PRabhupada was confronted with this

issue in an actual case in ISKCON? In the case I mentioned above, it was

taken out of our hands by the vetrinarian.

 

If something like this happens again, should we hide the animal from the

vet? Should we continue to feed it as if nothing were wrong? Should we give

it pain killers?

 

In the case of the calf at the manor, they desperatly needed his help to try

to cure the calf. As the animals protector this had to be done, but in this

case, once everything had been tried, and the animal did not improve, the

vet decided that the animal had to be 'put down' as it would be cruel to let

it live (which probabaly contravened RSPCA regulations).

 

So in a sense the devotees indirectly guaranteed its ultimate demise by

bringing in the vet.

 

Are their clear guidlines for this sort of thing now?

 

YS Samba das

 

SD