Animal euthanasia: decision making and ethical dilemmas
According to Law 576/2000, Art. 19, second paragraph, euthanasia is understood as "death without pain", it must be a decent procedure, where the animal suffers an induced, indolor and humanitarian death. In accordance with the law and article, mentioned above, in the first paragraph, this procedure will be carried out when “the professional will be allowed to apply euthanasia in case of chronicity or incurability” or “as a health measure in case of zoonotic diseases, which, whichThey compromise public health, or constitute a source of propagation of communicable or exotic diseases for animals ”.
It is important to highlight that, as a veterinarian and zootechnist, you can differ many times with the owner of an animal, either by beliefs, cultural customs, ethical and moral values or even for the same love that he has to his pet, in casesin which the animal is seriously injured, or with an incurable disease and of much suffering for the animal, the veterinary and zootechnical doctor must act, but to what extent this can intervene? How is an owner told that within his possibilities he could be applying euthanasia to his pet?
It is not easy to consider that someone can decide on the life of a living being, but when it is seriously injured or suffering incurable pain, it is necessary to act, and the decision of what is going to be done by the owner of the pet,although how much influence the veterinarian has on the owner so that he accesses or has not performed such a drastic and definitive procedure.
The relationship of the veterinarian – owner is one of the most discussed issues when talking about veterinary clinics, since normally, the owner is the one who comes to ask for the opinion of those who are trained to give a diagnosis, but, it is importantHighlight that for more precise and accurate that it is the diagnosis, the one who has the last word in whether or not to do a surgical treatment or procedure is the owner of the animal, who is the only person who can decide for this living being andthat this is under its amparo and custody . In cases like these, the veterinarian should not deal with the animal only but also with its owner who plays a very important role in these decisions.
Veterinary-Propietary Medical Relationship of the Mascota
This relationship of veterinary doctor and owner of the pet is quite important because this person is responsible for making the respective decisions with his pet, a good attitude and apathy with the owner will make the process much more bearable while it requiresits services. It should also be noted that the veterinarian should be attentive not only to the needs of the pet, but also those of the client, demonstrate interest in the opinion that the owner has and establish conversations where this person exposes his doubts about the proceduresthat will be carried out with their pet.
Ethical dilemmas
"The term dilemma is used to refer to moral elections that are difficult to take due to contextual factors, such as possible negative responses of customers or loss of income" (2), when you are in a situation where theEuthanasia as a possible option, many ethical dilemmas of both the veterinary doctor and the pet owner come into play. On the one hand, we have a person who trained and invested some time of his life to acquire knowledge to pay attention to the animals that need it, together with their professional status, all those responsibilities that acquire not only with his patient come, butAlso with the owner, colleagues, society and even with himself, therefore, he must make sure to exhaust all his options to improve the animal’s condition before considering applying euthanasia.
On the other hand, there is the owner of the animal who in most cases, watches over the health and life of this pet, this person may have been with this or just a few months but normally the connection they establish is quite strongSince this animal goes from being a pet, to being one more member of the family, that is where it becomes much more difficult to consider that it is by its own decision, due to the circumstances, that the life of this animal must end.
In a nutshell, euthanasia will always be a difficult decision and more when we are talking about an animal that became one more member of the family, this responsibility is accompanied by ethical and moral dilemmas, not only by the proprietary part, but also of the veterinarianin charge of the case since the latter has a great influence on making this important decision, that is why he must ensure to exhaust all possible options before communicating to the owner this option, however, if there is no other alternative theThis is to solve all doubts and make as entertaining as possible for the owner and for the animal this procedure, within what fits.
References
- Colombia Republic Congress. Law 576 of 2000. D OF NO 43897, February 17, 2000 [Internet]. 2000; (43): 19. Available from: http: // www.MINEDUCACION.GOV.CO/1621/ARTICLES-105017_ARCHIVO_PDF.PDF
- Morgan., Carol. A.;McDonald. M. Ethical dilemmas in veterinary medicine. Vet Clin North Am – Small Anim Pract [Internet]. 2007; 37 (1): 165–79. Available from: http: // dx.doi.org/10.1016/J.CVSM.2006.09.008
Leave feedback