Remind me again why people are anti-euthanasia?

[RPM]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05216/548454.stm

How come people can be so comfortable with euthanasia when it's a pet, racehorse, or zoo animal, but as soon as a cancer patient wants to die (for the same reasons - e.g. minimize pain) people get their undies in a twist...
:shrug:
it boggles my mind...

[livinginphotographs]

1. Honest answer:

Because people somehow think that their lives are more valuable than an animal's. It's the same reason PETA got everyone's undies in a twist about the factory farm/Holocaust comparison.

Sorry you asked. ;)

[rkc3]

9. Honest Answer #2:

Because you are required to have a good reason to be euthanized. You just can't pull anyone off the street - like a senator or congressman - and put them down for the dirt nap.

[theboss]

2. Because we don't believe that animals have souls

That's pretty much it.

[cdb]

6. Religion rears its ugly head.

interfering with gods plan or something... capital punishment is ok, war is ok, but not euthanasia... i dunno why. I find it very confusing myself....

[kahleefornia]

13. doesn't make sense to me

If a person has a soul, then euthanasia not only relieves their suffering, but delivers them to a better place. Double bonus.

[whistle]

14. Well, I believe that animals have souls in the same sense....

...that all living things have the light and striving for life as placed there by the Creator of the universe. I see it everyday in my dog, although it can be argued that dogs and for that matter any pet is simply responding to ques and behaviors being given out by their owners. But there does appear to be an intelligence there, a knowing, an awareness and even an attempt at communication even though animals have limited means to communicate (by that I mean can't form human words).

Another example was my wife. She loved flowers and gardening. At our former home where we resided for 21 years, she and I maintained a medium sized rose garden with about a dozen rose bushes, each a different variety. The garden sat in front of the house below our large picture window. These bushes yielded the most beautiful array of large colorful and fragrant blossoms Although I shared in the grunt work of weeding and fertilizing and watering and trimming these bushes, it was all under my wifes careful attention and direction. In other words the chores of tending to the rose garden which I performed only helped with the plants survival.

What made the real different was in how my wife interacted with each of those dozen rose plants. She seemed to have a spiritual connection with those plants and they each in turn appeared to respond to her in a most positive way. She researched what rose plants needed to thrive. She consulted with local horticulturists on common rose plant diseases, how to recognize then on the plants and how to use the best organic ways of getting rid of and preventing these diseases from returning. She learned to recognize insect predators of rose plants such as aphids and rather than use toxic chemicals to battle these little beggars, she would take a basin of mild soap and water and a soft natural sponge and wash away the eggs from the underside of any infected leaves and dispose of any dead leaves which were infected.

Although she never admitted to me of doing this, I believed she would also talk to these roses and encourage them to be the best they could be and always thanked them and God the lovely fragrant flowers they produced. They certainly responded as though there was a soul connection between her and those roses as well as other plants which she tended to.

Before she died in 1993, my wife had begun growing African Violets indoors in our new home. These plants responded in the very same way to her attentions. Try as I might, after my wife's passing, I was never able to bring those same flowers back to the fullness of their potential the way my wife was able to. I have done much better though with my dog Sir.

[H5N1]

15. The secret lives of plants

That is a cool story

[kid a]

3. Pets don't go to church or pray

[CornField]

4. This is only my opinion...

1) people who are anti-euthanasia have never had the misfortune of watching someone they love suffer prior to death

and/or

2) those who have had the misfortune are selfish enough to think their "time to say goodbye" is more important than the pain being suffered by their loved one

[pitohui]

10. so sad but so true

those who have had the misfortune are selfish enough to think their "time to say goodbye" is more important than the pain being suffered by their loved one



i know of a case where the cancer patient was in terrible pain from terminal cancer, his daughter interfered because she thought euthanasia was the same as suicide, fortunately, another daughter was able to get the priest to explain to daughter #1 that refusing food and water at the end of life is not suicide and that it was god's will to let her father pass without further suffering

but i could see where a fundy preacher would not have had this kindness and would have left the man screaming in misery for several more weeks to satisfy his private interpretation of scribblings in an old book

[porphyrian]

5. Controlling other peoples' lives is important...

...to those who have no life of their own to speak of.

[sleipnir]

7. Then the government can kill all it's citizens with glee!

He was sick, doctor, we had to kill him! Never mind that he was a Democrat and not sick at all. Once Pandora's box is opened, all hell will break loose! :tinfoilhat:

[kid a]

8. because of that evil DEATH TAX - ooooooooo!

[Bunny]

11. For humans,I think there is fear that the Right to Die will become the

Duty to Die. And I don't think that's entirely unjustified. Selfish adult children will want their elderly parents to go ahead and kill themselves, to preserve the inheritance. Elderly people won't want to be a burden on their children. Sometimes people who are in tremendous pain just don't have good pain managment. Perhaps with more pain relief, they may be able to take more joy in what time they have left.

To answer your specific question re: animals: I don't know, truthfully.

[Hamlette]

12. eugenics and the slippery slope

many vocal opponents of both euthanasia and eugenics are disabled. If you take either idea to its "logical" conclusion you could end up killing people with minor ailments. Like belonging to the "wrong" race or believing in the "wrong" religion.

Sounds hysterical? Remember the US in the 1920s to 1950s and of course Hitler.

Don't get me wrong, I think we will know where to draw the line. I do hesitate however when I think people like Frist will be making ANY of my decisions for me.

[applegrove]

18. Eugenics is evil. Euthenasia is the slippery slope and should be limited

to assisted suicide & living wills.

[applegrove]

16. You just cannot make someone dead unless they want it. I am okay

with assisted suicide for people who don't want to face the end stage of disease & pain. I am okay with people being taken off life-support if they have a living will. But beyong this...why shouldn't someone live if they are viable..even if they cannot communicate. Some people live happy, happy lives inside their heads. If we treat humans as poorly as we treat animals..that is a horrid thing.

There was a case in Canada where a man killed his child who was very ill and in pain. He wanted to put her out of her mysery. She was not terminal & she required much care. That tween had no say in if she lived or died. Naturally - the disabled community was terribly frightened by the concept. Naturally that man went to jail.

We don't get to decide if someone else gets to live or die. That is the basis of it all. We have no say in what someone else gets out of life and whether it is worthy of them living. It is one thing to take a body off of a machine & allow someone whose brain is dead to pass on. Fully another to do it to them & kill their brain yourself because you decided.

[OrlandoGator]

17. They are pro-life but anti-living.

n/t

[Proud2BAmurkin]

19. They love other people's suffering if it lets them feel "moral"

the reason for every Repuke belief