Existing in pain
delicious freedom of death
withheld by the courts

Today’s Haiku was inspired by lines from Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of the Open Road.” I do suffer from chronic pain and some days it is a tough battle. But, there are those who are worse off than myself and I understand that some might prefer to have an honorable, legally acceptable, way to stop their suffering. This has been on my mind as my old dog is nearing the end of his life and it is perfectly acceptable to ease his suffering before his pain becomes unbearable and his quality of life lessens to a very low degree.
Seeing him suffer and preparing to help I makes me ask the following:

Why do we not give humans the same consideration and dignity?