To Sell of Not To Sell

To Sell or Not To Sell

What would you do if faced with this scenario?  Your only surviving son is deaf and dumb due to having witnessed his mother and siblings being brutally killed.  His only friend is his dog that had saved his eight-year-old life by dragging his young unconscious body from the burning house that had so impersonally consumed the bodies of his mom and his brothers and sisters.  The two, your son and his dog, are inseparable.  You hear of an expensive, but safe procedure that could possibly restore your sons hearing and ability to speak.  You have exhausted all avenues to no avail to raise the money for this treatment.  Now a very rich man has heard about your son's dog, and has offered you enough money for the dog that would cover your expenses for traveling to the doctor, living expenses while going through with the treatment as well as for the treatment itself.  Would you sell the dog knowing that the treatment had only a 50% chance of being successful - and knowing that by no means would your son approve of this sell if you were to ask him for his approval - meaning that you would have to sell the dog without your son's knowing about the sell?  Yes, you may be thinking that you don't care if your son can speak or not: he is your son and you would love him no matter his disabilities.  However, you know that you won't be able to keep care or to look after your son all of his life.  Before answering this question of selling or not selling the dog, to be fair you need to think rather subjectively - if it were you in the place of your son would you rather have had your parent sell the dog, and you possibly hating that parent for years to come until when as an adult - long after the dog has died - you were grateful for the ability to hear and to speak - possibly to be able to hear the sweet voice of your dear wife or the happy laughter of your children, or to fill your longs, heart and mouth with a soft lullaby that would calm the pain or fears of a sick child?