Elysian Fields, Embalming, Euthanasia

My theme for this year's A- Z Blogfest is DEATH (who I hope is like DEATH in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series): "...tall, thin (skeletal, as a matter of fact), and ALWAYS SPEAKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS. Generally shows up when you're dead, or just when he thinks you ought to be." Today we have E for Elysian Fields, Embalming, Euthanasia.

In Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields are the final resting places of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous.

Embalming is the process used to forestall decomposition and preserve the body for viewing. Bodily fluids are removed and replaced with formaldehyde-based chemical solutions. I won't go into the details of the process but if you want to know more you can google it and probably even watch it. Hopefully, since I'm being cremated, I won't need to be embalmed.

Euthanasia is the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering. I worked in an animal hospital and I can tell you both the good and bad of euthanasia. A dog being euthanized over a broken leg, a cat because it had a urinary infection and "it would be too traumatic" to treat the cat for 14 days. Not to say there aren't times when it's the right thing to do. The problem is that the pain and suffering is in the eye of the beholder, not the sufferer. I'm all for it in people as long as it's their own choice.

Do you think euthanasia for people should be legal? Remember that scene in Gladiator? God, that was sad, but a bit happy, too.


Excerpt from Mort, by Terry Pratchett, in which DEATH takes on an apprentice...

"It is a fact that although the Death of Discworld is, in fact, in his own words, an ANTHROPOMORPHIC PERSONIFICATION, he long ago gave up using traditional skeletal horses, because of the bother of having to stop all the time to wire bits back on. Now his horses were always flesh-and-blood beasts, from the finest stock."