Some years ago we lost our 13 year old Golden Labrador retriever named Yuki due to kidney failure. She first came to Japan when she was 2 years old and spent eleven years serving as the faithful guardian of our Temple complex. She was sick merely a week or so and in apparent pain. As our family cared for her and watched her progress towards death, like all pet lovers, and even those who have cared for a dying family member in the hospital, the notion of euthanasia did occur to us.

Euthanasia has received considerable discussion, not merely in regards to pet animals, but concerning relieving the death of humans as well. But when we carefully examine the situation, the psychology of euthanasia is not necessarily for the benefit of the dying, but often is a means of relieving the family from the pain of watching a loved one die. For when we watch the process of dying, we also are forced to face the fact of our own mortality the fact, that someday we will also die.

In a like manner there is also the question of whether the doctor should inform the terminal cancer patient of the truth and, in another vein, why we shoot horses who merely break their legs, or animals who are injured, claiming to "put them out of their misery."

All such questions and values are a reflection of human hubris. For man believes he can control life and death and thus takes control of living and dying into his own hands.

It should be rather obvious that human cannot control life according to his or her own will. For life is something that is given to every creature by something that is far greater than human. And death is the same. Although man might have the illusion that he control it, there is no way to do so.

It is obviously painful for anyone to witness a living creature die or even death itself. Yet such pain is not the pain of the dying creature, we cannot feel that, but it is the pain of those of us who are forced to observe death. Yet, if you translate that emotional feeling to a spiritual level and calmly observe dying and death, you will become aware that the enjoyments of life and pains of life are simply part of living itself. We cannot enter into the mind of the dying or imagine what, in spite of pain, it is like to experience a last sunrise, the last smell of rain and warm grass, the last sound perhaps of music. Amongst the pain, those last memories may be among the most precious moments of living. Thus man should never interfere or insert his finite values to control the death of others to suit his own convenience or sensitivities. And we should all live cherishing the value of life, which is linked with death, and realize that both should be appreciated and experienced at their fullest and utmost sense.