What? Putting down pets or livestock isn’t that uncommon, whereas people go way out of their way (I seem to recall Robin Hanson mentioning a two-digit percentage of the US GDP, though I can’t seem to find it) to prolong human lives long after they’re no longer worth living.
There’s more pressure on a vet to get it right. People say “it was god’s will” when granny dies, but they get angry when they lose a cow.
Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett again
What? Putting down pets or livestock isn’t that uncommon, whereas people go way out of their way (I seem to recall Robin Hanson mentioning a two-digit percentage of the US GDP, though I can’t seem to find it) to prolong human lives long after they’re no longer worth living.
Discworld is set in a time roughly parallel to the late 1700s or early 1800s. Medicine didn’t really work, and livestock were significant capital.