Sick pets, casual sex, and death-denial

Don’t get too attached to the dog in this image (Source)

Your pet gets sick, nears the end of its life, and becomes severely debilitated. It limps, it moans, it struggles to see. You look at it one day and finally decide: it’s time to put it down.

To put down a pet isn’t literal, of course: it’s a euphemism for killing it. But the phrase is nonetheless a descriptive one. Cradling its head in their hand, the veterinarian injects the animal with a lethal dose of sedative. It becomes limp, and losing the support of its legs, falls lifeless to the table. It has physically been put down.

Now, we aren’t so different at the end of our lives. A high dose of morphine is enough to kill a dying person as they struggle with their last breaths. The muscles relax, the tension fades, and the body goes limp. We sink back into our deathbed for the big sleep.

Death waits for no one, not even presidents

Why, then, do we put down an animal, but not a person? It may simply be a matter of posture. An animal remains upright: your cherished poodle, no matter its distinctions, won’t be lying in repose. On the other hand, people stay reclined on their backs. And when mortality comes knocking, we don’t get up to answer the door.