Why are more females than males euthanised?

These are the statistics regarding those with mental health problems/disorders from Mind.

www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/statistics-and-facts-about-mental-health/how-common-are-mental-health-problems/#.W3ApZ-hKgU0

Our work shows that up to 457,000 people need good palliative care
services every year but around 92,000 people are not being reached.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/215107/dh_133105.pdf

Hospital costs were “by far the largest cost elements”, with care averaging over £4,500 per person who died. The bulk of this cost was due to emergency hospital admissions, increasing rapidly in the last few weeks of life.

www.nhsconfed.org/resources/2014/10/examining-the-costs-of-end-of-life-care

That's approximately £2 billion pounds per year.

How much is spent on mental health care?

fullfact.org/health/nhs-spending-mental-health/

Approximately £368 million per year.

What's the difference between 3.58 million and 2 billion?

A billion is a thousand million. So the disparity between mental health funding and palliative funding is clear.

It isn't up to you to decide how someone else feels about living or dying.

This

For similar reasons to why more female babies are aborted.

That is a ludicrous assertion. Euthanasia in NL has to be with the consent of the patient and it is strictly regulated. People aren't just killed willy-nilly. A very small number are granted it for psychiatric disorders but obviously only ever at the patient's request. Rather than scaremongering about women being forced to euthanise themselves, maybe wonder why we insist that people in this country with zero quality of life are not able to end that life with dignity.

There was a bit of a stir about it a while back. It's certainly true elsewhere in the world (euthansia doesn't occur in the UK so not sure why you're suddenly UK centred?). As I remember, posters on mumsnet felt that women should be allowed to abort baby girls if they wished because of what would happen to them if they didn't give birth to a boy :(

For similar reasons to why more female babies are aborted

Is that true in the U.K.? Seriously hope not.

For similar reasons to why more female babies are aborted.

I read the BBC article, and it made me think of my grandmother. She spent more than 50 years trying to kill herself (and at times, her children) or sectioned. She had an absolutely miserable life, and medication, therapy, ECT, and everything else they tried had a minimal effect, and she did eventually succeed. Rather than the end of her life being in a river, would it have been better to have allowed her an end to her suffering earlier? I don't know the answer

I read a study in the 90s that was based on qualitative data from males and females. Males tended to say 'I do not want euthanasia and I expect people [women] to look after me'. Females tended to say 'oh I don't want to be a burden'...

Euthanasia and mental health just shouldn’t be a thing what, like mental suffering isn’t as real as physical?

I strongly disagree. Palliative care isn't going to give people quality of life. It isn't up to you to decide how someone else feels about living or dying.

I have my health, thank goodness, but I watched my gran languish for years in utter misery. She had fantastic care but her life was horrible. All her friends are dead and she lost control of her mind and body.

Pallustive care, no thanks.

Madeline18

Euthanasia and mental health just shouldn’t be a thing. Better mental health services should be a thing! Even terminal cancer makes me a bit iffy, better palliative care should be what we are focussed on.

Basically that. I feel like it's a societal failure that the best we can offer is assisted suicide.
And quite frankly, I don't trust the government to come up with nor enforce adequate safeguards. The known potential negative consequences and abuses of power are scary enough.

I suspect its because men tend to kill themselves in more dramatic ways.
I think women might well be more drawn to a kinder more efficient way of ending things.
What are suicide stats like in the netherlands.

Im more comfortable with those who are terminally ill ending their lives than those with mental health issues.

As someone who has been suicidal and has had suicidal ideation and attempts at that point in my life I would have wanted to be euthanised and seen it as the easy way out. 5 years on I have a whole life ahead of me, there were some really dark times but I’m now in a positive place and I wonder how many of these people could also come to a positive place.

It’s very sad.

Euthanasia and mental health just shouldn’t be a thing. Better mental health services should be a thing! Even terminal cancer makes me a bit iffy, better palliative care should be what we are focussed on.

It's just a personal thing for me, MyBrexit

Religious Education at an all girl's Catholic School was not fun for a fledgling feminist.

Another factor is death by self neglect. I work in legal services after people have died alone. Men with mental and physical health problems are (anecdotally, at least) more likely to simply drink/eat/neglect themselves to death than women.

One demographic I see is the unmarried son. Man lives with mother all his life. Mother dies, man fails to cope. Dies neglected, in appalling domestic conditions.

As I say, I see it all the time but my experience is anecdotal.

I support assisted dying as I prefer to call it. Euthanasia has 'religious overtones' to me (former Catholic)

I support assisted dying too. I’ve never been religious so I’m not really sure what the religious overtones are regarding Euthanasia (I’ll have a google).

China is an interesting exception, female completed suicides outnumber male. But generally men just seem more comfortable with taking human life?

I support assisted dying as I prefer to call it. Euthanasia has 'religious overtones' to me (former Catholic).

Overwhelmingly they are end of life decisions when the quality of life becomes unbearable. I would be prosecuted if I kept my dog or cat alive if they were clearly suffering. It's a very peaceful way to go.

I would be interested more in how many men from the UK go to countries like Switzerland to get assisted dying. It seems to me that men being wealthier can afford to do this more so than women.

My mum told me of a woman who was well known in the community where she lives. She 'conquered' the 'battle' of breast cancer. However it did return, sadly for her. She drove her car into the local lake.

I did coroners court jury service once, many years ago, Lasquirrel. It was very sad and some of the people we were responsible for making decisions about are still very present on my mind more than 20 years on.

Nothing to add to the conversation really, only that I support euthanasia but agree with Babel in that the frameworks need to be incredibly rigorous..

Agree that women likely worry more about who/how they are found - due to gendered socialisation. I read a book on PTSD a while back and several of the personal accounts were about finding loved ones after suicide.

Why aren’t women using violent methods though? Especially after the first one or two overdoses have failed.

Very occasionally (the exceptions rather than the rule), they do.

I know of a nursing sister at a boarding school who took herself out with a chainsaw. A woman (unknown) who jumped from a motorway bridge just in front of the vehicle driven by my then BIL. And when going through the coroner's reports (looking for DV cases) I found a teenager who walked onto the rail tracks in front of an oncoming train. In the first and third cases, known MHI.

So generally, severe MHI when women take themselves out this way. Other than that (if for say depression, or terminal illness) they do tend to worry about 'the clean up'.

I also saw, when going through the coroner's reports, a lesbian couple's double suicide (or assisted suicide and suicide it may have been technically), they sent a note to the local police station, left a key under the mat for the door, proper 'documentation'. One of them had a severe degenerative illness. Apparently they made a pact.

What I worry about is the framework around it. How do we make sure that it’s not abused? How do we make sure it’s the patients consented wish? These are difficult questions ethically.

Me too Bowl. But all that aside, I am for it. I personally do not want to linger on for years when quality of life is in the toilet.

I think the sample is too small for any meaningful extrapolations or conclusions to be drawn

The suicide rates though are roughly the same in favour of men, and more women suffer psychiatric disorders