It depends on the situation. First of all with an animal it depends on if it's domestic or wild. And with a person it depends - people and animals are a little bit different, so I'll do that later. Let's talk about animals. From my understanding of animals, normally if they're wild, they will go off and fast themselves and die anyway. To put it out of its misery, this is a human view. I don't know whether it's true, it is based in the idea that when you die that's the ending of suffering. But this is a belief that's a human creation, and we don't really know. We may not be putting it out of its misery, it may be going to a worse situation if there's actually something after death, I don't know. We have to actually see whether we want to put ourselves out of misery, and not the animal. Often this is the case, because we don't like to see suffering. It helps to actually see whether that is motivating us; that we want to put ourselves out of the misery of opening to Dukkha and seeing suffering, and accepting it. Sometimes we think it's easier to kill it, so that we don't have to open to it and the suffering of existence. So first of all we have to look and see whether it's actually based in Compassion for the animal, or through aversion to seeing suffering.
Now with a wild animal, I would tend to want to not make that choice. That's my wish, because actually when we consider Kamma we may actually be not allowing that being to use up some of its Kamma at that time. I would try to help the animal as best I can until it died of the wound.
With a domestic animal it's a little more difficult to make that decision. It would be up to the person, and we would have to see actually what the intention was. To make sure that it is based in Compassion and what you feel is best for the animal, because domestic animals are our responsibility, we take them on as our responsibility. So we have to make decisions for them because they can't make decisions for themselves.
Now as far as a person asking you to kill them for the same reason, we also have to see again, whether it's our wish to not see suffering or whether we're taking all the opportunities we can to help them lessen their mental and physical suffering concerned with that.
I'll tell you a little story about a person who had a terminal illness who was very, very angry and upset about it. Their family had stopped visiting because this person was very angry and upset. Fortunately for this person they also knew someone who was skilled in meditation. This person actually didn't react to the anger and the rage so much and was trying to help that person mentally with this experience. Well something must have got through, because one night that particular person started to open to their suffering, and then started to expand out to the human condition and see that suffering everywhere in all humanity. The anger disappeared and it was replaced with Compassion for themselves and for others. It was quite a transformational experience for that person. Their personality completely changed and they became the favorite patient in the ward, because they were so kind and loving, and were able to deal with their pain and their anger, because they got an insight into suffering and the universality of it. It was quite a spiritual transformation for that person. Dukkha can be an opportunity, if we have the methods to use the opportunity.
So I am very hesitant to encourage anybody to kill a human being for these reasons. It's very easy for this type of attitude to get a bit out of hand, so that other people start to make the decisions for a person rather than trying to help them spiritually and mentally to deal with their affliction. Because certainly when I look in society today, often people consider ill people as a burden. Then they can start to encourage a person who is a burden to kill themselves, rather than actually using it as an opportunity to have Compassion for that person and help them. Many people who are particularly vulnerable and maybe are considered burdens, the elderly, the sick and the handicapped, have to be protected against these sorts of attitudes.