Why do we put animals out of their misery but let humans suffer?

[Freshton]

A relative is currently dying a slow and horrible death from terminal cancer. In palliative phase and last few days now as can't swallow or take any liquids.

It's truly opened my eyes. I had no idea how medieval things were still when it comes to death. I've been truly horrified at what people are expected to endure in their final weeks and what their relatives have to witness.

I can't understand why we put animals to sleep to spare them suffering but humans still have to deal with this slow and undignified end.

I've never been much in favour of assisted dying as not had to think about it but after seeing what I've seen, I really hope something can change. I'll be haunted for the rest of my life by what I've seen in last few weeks.

It’s cruel. Heartbreaking to see.

I agree completely OP.

Suicide is NOT illegal in the U.K. and hadn't been since 1961.

OP, it is unethical and extremely dangerous to have assisted suicide when we don't have the bare minimum of palliative care. Once palliative care is sorted, we might be able to have a balanced conversation.

Yes, I have watched both a bad death and a good death, and no, it didn't change my view.

And I've seen one of my pets put to sleep where is was not peaceful and straightforward, but actually pretty awful.

No and yes.

Has that ever actually happened in the UK though? I've read various accounts of people who accompany their loved ones to Dignitas but never heard of a case of someone being prosecuted for it.

i hope the law changes soon. It’s inhumane

Have you ever questioned why they’re against it though? Medical organisations and care companies make their money by keeping people alive with care, drugs, etc no profit, or very little profit to be made by people being allowed to end their suffering!
Whereas even very basic care is 2k a week, much more for more complex cases. Drugs are expensive to develop, manufacture, so you need an audience to be feeding the drugs to and be paying for the care…there’s more Money to be made keeping people alive than letting them die!

I'm for assisted dying (but against euthanasia) in theory but not in the current economic climate, for all the reasons detailed above. In a healthy society and economy, I'd vote for it. In the meantime, why not do what I've done? Making an advanced directive stating clearly that in case of permanent loss of capacity combined with [inability to eat and or/ toilet and/or recognise relatives, and'or meaningfully communicate and/or complete as per your wishes] I refuse all life extending treatment and want comfort measures only. That means no antibiotics. Its not failsafe but its a hell of a lot better than nothing.

My Grandma (dad’s mum) died of dementia eventually after years in a care home. My dad always said if he ever got like that then shoot him as he absolutely in no way wanted to be reduced to a shell of a person having someone else do all of his most basic care.
Guess what he ended up with? Yep dementia and again spent years in a care home not being able to walk, speak, feed himself or even give himself a drink. The pleading in his eyes sometimes broke my heart and I can tell you now if he’d have had a crystal ball and knew what was coming he’d have ended his life before it all started

Agree. Sorry for what you're going through. I also had to watch my parents suffer terribly at the end - despite receiving quality hospice care. It was literally like watching torture.

This is already the reality for most people in hospice care. Doesn't do anything to prevent suffering.

@YorksMa what do you mean? I made it after my grandmother died of dementia. She wouldn't have gotten to the way she ended if she hadn't been given antibiotics on at least 2 previous occasions. No it wouldn't have prevented the dementia, but she'd have died whilst she still had some quality of life, could recognise some people, taste food, and so on, rather than living past all that.

My apologies. You are correct that it is not technically illegal as the Suicide Act was replaced by the Mental Health Act.

However in this case it makes no real difference. The key point is the same. People are not “free to commit suicide if they wish”. If they try and are unsuccessful they will be forcibly prevented from trying again.

Call me cynical, but I wonder if government (any and all) prefer people's houses to go towards paying for care because it prevents inheritance. They don't like people being financially independent or having assets because then people might not have to work and pay tax for so long.

I'm so sorry you're having to go through this OP. 💐 If we could bring in assisted dying in this country and make sure it was always freely chosen without coercion I'd absolutely 100 percent support it. But unfortunately in other countries like Canada where it happens it's being used for people without terminal illnesses, and many of them who ask for treatment and care for their disabilities are being refused it due to lack of funding and having assisted dying pushed on them instead. There are people in hospital without terminal illnesses being asked if they want to die constantly even when they have made it clear they don't want that. With assisted dying the people who support it do so for different reasons, some because they very understandably want to give people choices about their death and not force them to die slowly of a terminal illness if they don't want to, but others support it because it saves a lot of money, and many of the people who want to to save money are happy to ignore coercion or actively participate in it. Some of the first group also turn a blind eye to the second group, or are quite willing to ally with them in order to try and get the laws they want passed. The bill that failed recently in the uk didn't succeed because it didn't make provision to prevent coercion, and in fact the people pushing it voted down most of the clauses intended to prevent coercion. There's also the issue that the drugs that are used for assisted dying haven't actually been proven to cause a peaceful death, in fact it seems that it may be quite the opposite in many cases.o

You know why. We all know why but it's hard when you see your relative in the final stages of life. It is terribly sad but part of the circle of life. I've seen relatives die this way but they are on lots of drugs and not in pain. It is more painful for us to watch them this way than them. Dying is a natural process.

What's wrong with funding care through charity? Whether it's through people paying taxes or people giving to charity, its all coming from the public. Charity is simply a voluntary tax.

Being against assisted dying is taking away choice. Why do you get to choose how I die but I don't get to choose how you die? Is that really fair?

Of course it's an assertion. But it is undeniable that the assisted dying bill that was recently dropped would have increased the risk that vulnerable people could be coerced into using the provisions within it. In my opinion, it isn't worth the danger that this bill would have put the most vulnerable in.

Then how come so many people want an assisted death (and travel to get it) for themselves? Yes, survival instinct is strong, but not when you're suffering horribly - at that point, you just want to stop suffering.

Massively agree that we should be able to choose a medically-assisted death.

My husband has advanced cancer. I was praying for the assisted dying bill to go through and that he would benefit from it. Why can we not agree a system that allows people to end their suffering when agreed by medical professionals - other countries can do it. Its barbaric and unnecessary.

And the abuse argument isn't a good enough reason to stop the bill going through. Appropriate checks and measures should be in place.

I'm so sorry about your husband. The problem is that the people trying to push the bill through that just failed voted down the amendments that were proposed in order to protect vulnerable people from coercion. That's why the bill failed in the end. There are too many people with their own dangerous agendas who want to prevent these protections being put in place.

If this is a surprise to you, then you clearly haven’t done your research on the subject.

The second you make the argument that euthanasia is best because it saves the government money is the second you are admitting that the government will use cost savings to justify withholding disability benefits, active treatment or palliative care from the most sick and vulnerable regardless of what the patients want or need. Coerced into dying early to reduce the benefits bill is state sanctioned murder.

My when my poor dad was still lucid enough at the start of dementia and knew what was happening, he tried to take his own life.

He didn’t do it well enough though and was found and “saved”. He was then sectioned as he made his intentions of wanting to die clear and said he’d try again.

I wish he’d been successful, because what followed was 4 years of utter hell before he eventually died of thirst over 3 days, skeletal and a shadow of the eloquent, funny man he once was.

If I didn’t have young children, I would have helped him on his way and taken the prison time. I’ve been left with PTSD from those 4 years, fighting two care homes that he was abused in and sitting and watching his horrific death.