--- Ronn! Blankenship <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Kitty CAT scan: More vets use high tech <snip> > Pushing the boundaries > "Veterinarians in general aren't always aware we can > get good results, and > the general populace has no idea," said Bush, who > performs the delicate > surgery in a suburban Washington animal hospital. "I > would like people to > know there are things we can do." > > Indeed, pet owners like Gelb are urging > veterinarians to push the > boundaries of animal medicine -- and no pet is too > small. A goldfish just > received radiation for cancer at Tufts University's > School of Veterinary > Medicine, therapy costing thousands of dollars. <snip> > Ethical issues abound > > Then there are ethical issues. A handful of animal > hospitals offer feline > kidney transplants, but only if the sick cat's owner > finds and adopts > another cat suitable to donate one of its kidneys, > ensuring the donor a good home, Rowell said. <snip> > Buying quality time > So was it worth the gamble for Buffy? Cats do > survive brain surgery better > than dogs, for unknown reasons... Drilling > through Buffy's tiny skull, Bush cut away bone and > almost a half-inch of > diseased cells beneath it before healthy brain > tissue finally came into view. > A day later, Buffy was playing, a bald spot her only > sign of sickness. <snip> > "I'm getting quality time," Gelb says. "That's what > I was looking for, as long as it lasts."
Mixed feelings on this one: on the one paw, my cats are my surrogate children; on the other, subjecting creatures who cannot understand to lengthy painful treatments is selfish and cruel; on the third, pets are a form of mental and physical therapy, significantly enriching the lives of their owners; on the fourth, spending thousands of dollars to extend the life of one animal by a month or five is wasteful, when the same amount would provide for dozens of others who might then find owners/homes in those extra months at the shelter. When Kia's femur was shattered by a too-close encounter with a car ~ 10 years ago, a friend who had never had pets asked why I spent ~$500 on surgery to repair the leg, when there were 'better' charitable uses for the money. I answered that the cat was part of my mental therapy, thus reducing the costs that I would otherwise incur over the next several years (he's still quite the hunter, and a great lap-cat). But when his predecessor Mithril developed an aggressive sarcoma at 7 yo, I refused the vet's offer of chemotherapy, as it would have been likely to extend her life by only a month or two, and those full of intractable vomiting, diarrhea and hair/skin loss. To borrow from another thread, the idea of cloning a pet seems terribly disrespectful - that individual is gone, and its genetic twin will not be the same personality (though it will of course be similar - if it doesn't have any of the many defects to which clones are currently prone). My views on human reproductive cloning are the same (although the ability to clone/create *organs* such as livers, kidneys, hearts and skin would be terrific). Middle-of-the-Fence, Case-by-Case Maru __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
