Let me be blunt, but please correct me if I'm wrong. We are more humane to our pets than we are to our family members!
I say this as a person who has worked in a hospital for over twenty years involved in caring for acute patients young and old. I have almost twenty-two years experience working with very sick individuals on life-support who multiple doctors have told family members their loved ones have no chance of recovery from his/her illness. These patients I speak of, in my opinion and my other colleagues' opinions, will not have any quality of life if they do recover from their illnesses. These individuals have been diagnosed with clinical brain death, or have no chance surviving without life-support medication and ventilation, or severely metastasized cancer to the bones and brain. I mean individuals who have not even a chance at any quality of life even if they had some miracle that kept them alive without such medical support!
I am not a barbarian by the way. I do not support assisted suicide at all. I'm simply asking, "Why?" Why are we more humane to our pets that we love, often as much as a family member, than we are to our human families? I mean, when our pets get too sick, we are so concerned they are suffering from too much pain that we are willing to let the vet "put it down."
When our family members, diagnosed with unsurmountable illness, one they cannot return from, as described above, probably suffering from much pain that we can not imagine even with sedation, family members go out of their way to keep their supposed loved ones living with the assistance of a ventilator machine and multiple drugs to keep their hearts going!
In my opinion, without individuals seeing it, they keep their family members going on like this for selfish reasons! It is because they can't imagine life without their loved ones. They will miss them and can't go on without them. They do not consider how their family members might feel about the decisions they make about their care. They're afraid of what others might think about them if they let their loved ones go. Selfish REASONS! Some simply feel it is against their religion. It is not!
Once again, let me reiterate, I do not support assisted suicide. My wife and I have an agreement that if and when we get sick enough that multiple doctors have said we will not survive without life-sustaining medication and machines, we will make the decision to withdraw support and just provide comfort care.
Correct me if I'm wrong.