Every now and then the biomedical community and the legal system are presented with the opportunity to rediscover our collective humanity through the lens of animal rights and animal cruelty. More often than not that lens has insufficient power to correct their distorted perception of human dignity. Having just passed the ninth anniversary of Terri Schiavo’s death by starvation and dehydration, word comes today of the starvation and dehydration death of Roxy the dog, a boxer in England, who died at the hands of his solicitor-in-training owner, Katy Gammon.
Ms. Gammon has been in the employ of a law firm specializing in……
Medical Negligence.
It seems that Ms. Gammon retained Roxy who originally belonged to a boyfriend after the relationship ended. The dog was kept locked in the kitchen because it wasn’t housebroken. All was well until Gammon began staying with her mother a few blocks away and stopped coming to feed the dog after she injured her knee. A window into the collective soul from MailOnline:
Bristol Magistrates’ Court had previously heard that Gammon had confined the dog by tying a rope to the kitchen door handle and fixing it to a hook in the hall.
Roxy had frantically clawed at the door, leaving fragments on the floor, as she tried to escape before her death, which would have taken around six days…
Asked if she had deliberately locked her in the kitchen and left her to die, Gammon replied: ‘Yes, basically.’
The article continues with a description of what Roxy’s death was probably like. At this juncture it is worth noting that humans and dogs have very similar anatomy and physiology, and that dog experimentation has often been the last step before human trials of new medicines and medical treatments, because of our shared similarities. More from the article:
A vet said the pet would have taken up to six days to die gradually and painfully, becoming blind and falling into a coma before passing away…
‘A number of items had desperately been pulled out of cupboards. We believe this was a desperate attempt at searching for food or water.
‘Roxy suffered a slow, painful death which could have been prevented.’
And so it goes with human beings who are deprived of food and hydration as a means of hastening death. It is a slow and agonizing demise, as Roxy’s story indicates. Often the patient is unresponsive, but as the parent of any teenager knows, lack of responsiveness does not indicate a lack of sensory reception, or internal processing. Terri Schiavo was perhaps the most publicized case of the Roxys of our species.
However, shared physiology is where our paths diverge. Lower animals now possess greater dignity (from the Latin, meaning “standing”) in western jurisprudence than human beings. Consider the words of the sentencing magistrate as Gammon received 18 weeks in jail, and a lifetime ban on owning pets, for her crime:
Sentencing, magistrate Rod Mayall said: ‘You have shown limited remorse. You failed to behave as any normal person would have. This is the most serious case of animal cruelty encountered in these courts.’
And here is where the magistrate misses the mark by a mile. Humans are also animals. Additionally, we are a higher order animal, capable of at least as much pain (physical state) as a dog, and perhaps even more suffering (a psychological state). If this is the worst case of animal cruelty he has seen before the court, then it is because humans have lost their standing in the very courts they have created. Gammon has been sentenced to jail and a lifetime ban from owning pets so that she may never again be in a position to practice such barbarism. That’s a good thing.
However human beings who, on a daily basis, pull members of their own species apart, limb-by-limb, in the womb, and who similarly starve and dehydrate members of our own species to death do so with government-issued licenses and are considered practitioners in good standing.
The outrage in all of this isn’t that Gammon was punished for her crime against Roxy, it’s that the deaths of the Terri Schiavo’s among us aren’t considered criminal at all. It is that our legislators and judges do not, “behave as any normal person would have,” protecting humans with the same ferocity as they would if the subject in consideration were a dog.
The greatest tragedy of all is that humans have a long way to go before we enjoy equal dignity, equal standing with our pets in a court of law.
Coming Home 
Have you heard Fr Pavone’s description of Schiavo’s death? He said they had six police officers standing around her bed to prevent the family from even giving her water. The media never published that but when I heard Fr Pavone speak at our Rosary dinner, he gave those details.
She apparently had a feeding tube for convenience – a neurologist I interviewed who was really shocked at how Terry was basically executed without even the mercy given to convicted killers – he is Jewish by the way. He pointed out that she was swallowing a couple of pints of saliva every day so it wasn’t that she couldn’t swallow at all. That’s why they had to station the police officers around the bed to prevent the family from giving Terri pudding and things she could swallow.
Accessing Terri’s site, I saw movies where they’d tested her – her eyes would follow an object and although she was basically not verbal, she’d smile at visitors – far from “the vegetable” they tried to portray her as. The husband who, although was divorced from her, prevailed over the wishes of the family (who was totally willing to care for her), of course, stood to get a hefty amount of bucks at her death, which was likely the bottom line. And the judge who condemned her to a painful prolonged death, was a member of the “Hemlock Society”, a group into euthanasia and “assisted suicide/murder”.
A country like ours, too hypocritical to just more mercifully execute her by legal injection since they wanted her dead… is the same country which cries over the death of animals and the same country which closes its eyes to the murder of 5000 unborn babies a day. I’m glad you wrote about this – people need to remember this shameful incident and our perverted agenda that would allow such a death of a woman who was merely handicapped. BTW, it is said, Terri had bulimia – a pathetic attempt to stay slim which eventually was the cause of her condition – sad sad sad. I remember it like it was yesterday. 😦 Thanks for writing this blog! I pray that it will open the eyes of some of your readers.
In Him, Sue
Sent from my iPad
On Apr 10, 2014, at 8:22 AM, Coming Home wrote:
WordPress.com Gerard M. Nadal posted: ” Every now and then the biomedical community and the legal system are presented with the opportunity to rediscover our collective humanity through the lens of animal rights and animal cruelty. More often than not that lens has insufficient power to cor”
If a person’s brain is compromised beyond hope of any consciousness, then how can they possibly suffer more than that poor dog did?
My family withheld hydration from my grandmother at the end — even her pastor and Catholic hospice workers said it was time.
Twaronite, isn’t “they” in your first sentence plural? Shouldn’t you have written “he or she?” (What do I know.) Regardless, this debate applies to the death penalty as well. Is it painless? Should it be? Or should it simply be outlawed? In any case, have a glass of water — it’s on the house.
Mea culpa! “He or she” is indeed correct — “they” is just easier to type and gets the same meaning across. I took the easy way out, alas, and you called me on it. Point pt-109.
Didn’t Terri Schiavo’s autopsy reveal that her brain had atrophied to the point where conscious thought was impossible? Can people be said to be in pain, if they are incapable of conceiving pain in their minds?
Alzheimers took my grandmother’s brain. She was unable to swallow, and the family decided not to intubate her.
Along the same lines — see this one?
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/a-better-way-to-help-dying-patients/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Death penalty…..I’m not a fan of it. Death is too simple and quick. It’s better to keep those convicted of capital crimes alive, make them do hard labor or something to earn their keep. They might eventually atone for their crimes, or at least they can suffer everyday from the knowledge that their own actions led to their life sentences.
LT,
Not everyone in the world can agree on everything. I’m OK with assisted suicide and capital punishment in certain cases, but it’s very difficult to know where to draw any line, and when lines can even be drawn. Being consciously aware, i.e., being able to say “ouch!” in one’s own mind, is not a good litmus test for experiencing pain. Neither is the technical ability to maintain someone’s vital bodily functions a good litmus test for doing that person a “mitzvah” by keeping them alive. At least we agree that one should never use a singular noun followed by the plural possessive determiner. <– You see, after all, I do have some absolute principles!
Happy Easter, pt-109 — you, too, Dr. Nadal.
[…] Coming Home, Dr. Gerard Nadal compares the case of a woman who allowed her dog to die via dehydration and […]
Thanks, Lisa. Happy Easter to you, and all here at Coming Home!