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Why do we treat our pets better than our other loved ones?

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ennui

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Why do we consider it kinder to end their suffering when the end is near, but not allow humans the ability to make that same choice for themselves when the end is near [except in Oregon & Washington state]?

Come Wednesday, a third state may be added to the list, which terrifies some around the country. Money has been pouring in from outside the state to vigorously campaign against a ballot question on MA ballot. Actually they are campaigning against two questions:

QUESTION 2 - Prescribing Medication to End Life
This proposed law would allow a physician licensed in Massachusetts to prescribe medication, at a terminally ill patient’s request, to end that patient’s life.

To qualify, a patient would have to be an adult resident who:
> is medically determined to be mentally capable of making and communicating health care decisions,
> has been diagnosed by attending and consulting physicians as having an incurable, irreversible disease that will, within reasonable medical judgment, cause death within six months, and
> voluntarily expresses a wish to die and has made an informed decision.

The patient would ingest the medicine in order to cause death. The patient, directly or through a person familiar with the patient’s manner of communicating, would have to orally communicate to a physician on two occasions, 15 days apart, a request for the medication. At the time of the second request, the physician would have to offer the patient an opportunity to rescind the request.

The patient would also have to sign a standard form, in the presence of two witnesses, one of whom is not a relative, a beneficiary of the patient’s estate, or an owner, operator, or employee of a health care facility where the patient receives treatment or lives.
Click to expand...

QUESTION 3 - Medical Use of Marijuana
This proposed law would allow the medical use of marijuana by patients who have been diagnosed with a debilitating medical condition such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV-positive status or AIDS, hepatitis C, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, or multiple sclerosis.

The patient would have to obtain a written certification from a physician with whom the patient has a bona fide physician-patient relationship. Patients could possess up to a 60-day supply of marijuana for their personal medical use.

Non-profit treatment centers could grow, process, and provide marijuana to patients if they register with the state Department of Public Health, pay a fee, and identify where the marijuana will be grown and stored in enclosed, locked facilities.

A center’s personnel would have to register with DPH, be at least 21 years old, and have no felony drug convictions. In 2013, there could be no more than 35 treatment centers, with no more than five centers in each county. In later years, DPH could modify the number of centers.

If a patient’s access to a treatment center is limited by financial or physical limitations, DPH could allow the patient or a registered caregiver to grow plants, in a closed, locked facility, for a 60-day supply of marijuana for the patient’s own use.

The sale, distribution, or trafficking of medical marijuana for profit could be punished by up to 5 years in state prison or by 2 1/2 half years in a house of correction.
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Marijuana has already been decriminalized here. Gay marriage has been legal for years & soon...
 
I have no good answers for your question...wish I did

But when my Mom was dying of cancer she was able have what the Dr. called "terminal sedation" as Illinois doesn't have right to die laws.

She got to choose when she had enough (no food or fluids for days, pain) and we all got to say our goodbyes. Lots of meds, no deep reflexes, she was peaceful and with myself and my Dad. In the make shift hospital we had made out of her living room.
 
I have only had to put down one pet and it spiraled me into a deep depression. I waited a long time to do it and questioned even after it was done if I had done enough. The vet said I could get her another six months and I wonder to this day if I should have done it.

I can't imagine that kind of angst when it comes to a human life.

Even now with Gadget at 10 years old I'm already preparing myself. She's a 90lb dog, with medical problems so I know that I have 2 years (or less) to go through this again. This should be easier and more clear cut, for pets that is, well I guess humans too.
 
I wouldn't necessarily agree we treat our pets better by making it easy to euthanize them. A lot of people seem to make that decision based on the cost of treatment rather than the prognosis with treatment.
 
It seems that this law is designed for the terminally ill person to make their own decision to end their life, so there would be no reason for anyone else to feel guilty about it. I wish this were the law in every state. People have the right to die with dignity, IMO.
 
QUESTION 3 - Medical Use of Marijuana

This I don't understand at all. There are so many more medications out there that are so much worse, stronger, more addictive and they are prescribed all the time. It's not like people would be getting it on the street corner, it would be prescribed by a physician like any other medication.
 
Marilyn said:
It seems that this law is designed for the terminally ill person to make their own decision to end their life, so there would be no reason for anyone else to feel guilty about it. I wish this were the law in every state. People have the right to die with dignity, IMO.
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That is what the organized out of staters pouring money into the anti campaign are so scared about. That like gay marriage, MA will be the big stepping stone for death with dignity across the country.

No one should be forced to suffer a miserable, painful, lingering death from a fatal disease, it is cruel. We know it is cruel to inflict that upon our beloved pets, why must humans suffer as well? It should be an option available as a choice of the patient, and the patient alone.
 
There are many more complexities involved with allowing a human to end his/her life than ending a pet's life. Also, modern medicine has created this situation, because before many people would have died before this situation would have ever arose. People can live longer, but is their quality of life all that great?
 
I just don't believe that we should be able to decide when another human being dies. That's why I'm against assisted suicide, suicide, the death penalty, and abortion. Life is sacred. Ending it should not be our choice.

Yes I love my pets and they are family to me. But they aren't human beings and there is a difference there. (Even I know that. :giggles:)

I have a real problem with the term "death with dignity." It seems to insinuate that by giving up you're dying in a dignified manner but by struggling through a disease and dying when your time comes that's somehow undignified. My mom suffered from lung cancer for a year. She had chemo & radiation and suffered through all of the miserable side effects those treatments bring. Although she didn't win her fight with cancer she certainly died with dignity.
 
eiramnoaj said:
I just don't believe that we should be able to decide when another human being dies. That's why I'm against assisted suicide, suicide, the death penalty, and abortion. Life is sacred. Ending it should not be our choice.

Yes I love my pets and they are family to me. But they aren't human beings and there is a difference there. (Even I know that. :giggles:)

I have a real problem with the term "death with dignity." It seems to insinuate that by giving up you're dying in a dignified manner but by struggling through a disease and dying when your time comes that's somehow undignified. My mom suffered from lung cancer for a year. She had chemo & radiation and suffered through all of the miserable side effects those treatments bring. Although she didn't win her fight with cancer she certainly died with dignity.
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:shesaid:
 
eiramnoaj said:
I just don't believe that we should be able to decide when another human being dies. That's why I'm against assisted suicide, suicide, the death penalty, and abortion. Life is sacred. Ending it should not be our choice.
Click to expand...

Not everyone shares your religious beliefs.

Just as you do not want the religious or ethical beliefs of others intruding on how you choose to live your life, others feel the same way about how they choose to live their life, including how and when to end their life when they are suffering and facing certain death.

Knowing that they may be facing entrapment locked inside a paralyzed body, in unremitting pain that is not relieved by any method, unable to feed themselves, unable to communicate, unable to take care of themselves, unable to control their bodily functions, unable to even breathe on their own, wasting away, etc. is not the way they may want to spend their last months on earth.

They should have a choice, their choice. They may choose to live out their life, or they may not want to.

It should be up to them.
 
eiramnoaj said:
I just don't believe that we should be able to decide when another human being dies. That's why I'm against assisted suicide, suicide, the death penalty, and abortion. Life is sacred. Ending it should not be our choice.

Yes I love my pets and they are family to me. But they aren't human beings and there is a difference there. (Even I know that. :giggles:)

I have a real problem with the term "death with dignity." It seems to insinuate that by giving up you're dying in a dignified manner but by struggling through a disease and dying when your time comes that's somehow undignified. My mom suffered from lung cancer for a year. She had chemo & radiation and suffered through all of the miserable side effects those treatments bring. Although she didn't win her fight with cancer she certainly died with dignity.
Click to expand...
:shesaid:
 
I think that the current state of modern medicine makes this one so much more difficult than it might have once been--even if you believe that a person has "a time" with all the truly heroic measures we have to keep someone alive who's to say when that time is. In one respect due to modern medicine I think most of us live beyond our time.

When my mother was dying the doctors said a rather remarkable thing when you think about it. They asked how many more family members there were who hadn't arrived and they basically said it's her time but we could keep her alive for 3 or 4 more days if we have to if there is someone coming who hasn't arrived yet. They were able to keep her comfortable but unconscious because otherwise she would have been in excruciating pain. She had battled with cancer for 15 years, through 4 full rounds of chemo and radiation--she had fought and fought and the battle was over, but they still didn't have to let her die. At that point who decides if not the family? and who has the gall to judge the decision that anyone makes in this kind of terrible situation?

I think these kind of issues really come down to whether you think people have the right to live their own lives or whether you think the state should do it for them. And the problem is that the state as an institution can never fully understand how messy and awful and beautiful and heartbreaking life really is...

Anyway just my two cents...
 
ennui said:
Not everyone shares your religious beliefs.

Just as you do not want the religious or ethical beliefs of others intruding on how you choose to live your life, others feel the same way about how they choose to live their life, including how and when to end their life when they are suffering and facing certain death.

Knowing that they may be facing entrapment locked inside a paralyzed body, in unremitting pain that is not relieved by any method, unable to feed themselves, unable to communicate, unable to take care of themselves, unable to control their bodily functions, unable to even breathe on their own, wasting away, etc. is not the way they may want to spend their last months on earth.

They should have a choice, their choice. They may choose to live out their life, or they may not want to.

It should be up to them.
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Totally agree. My dad watched my stepmother die a slow, painful death from lung cancer that metastasized into her brain. He has never been the same after witnessing her suffering. No one should have to die like that.
 
If you choose hospice they do leave it up to the family......when my dad was slowly dying in pain.....I remember every moment of every day with pain in my heart still.....This to me is a subject that until you have lived through it you have no idea of the life altering event that it is....no judgements should be made.
 
My dad died a very slow painful death last year. Watching him tied to the bed screaming and trying to pull of the oxygen mask because it ****led the screams was the hardest thing I have had to watch. It was almost unbearable but.....(you knew it was coming). It was NOT my choice or my moms choice to end his life. God gives it and he is the only one that can take it away. No, I will never be the same as I was before going through that. I've changed for the better. It has a way of making you more aware and sympathetic to others suffering.

Does it ever occur so some that there is a reason for everything that goes on in this world whether we understand why or not? Maybe someone suffers or dies to change others? I do believe it is all part of Gods plan. We are simple men and woman and should not elevate our powers to his. He doesn't like to be mocked.
 
The simple reason euthanasia is not legal is because if it were, people would kill all their sick, old, and disabled people.

It is modern medicine to a large degree that allows very sick people to live long enough to suffer that way in the first place.

Terminally ill people typically have sufficient meds to suicide if they wish. Most people are afraid to die, that's why they want heroic measures to continue their lives.
 
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