Religions and doctors "vowing to protect life." Especially religious doctors "vowing to protect life" even when the life means just pain and suffering that can't be properly eased with pain meds either, because you know, the dying person might get addicted to the meds. That's obviously worse.

In my country, when an elder person is too sick and "ready to be euthanized", they just stop giving them water and let them dry to death. It can take weeks. They do give some pain medication, but there is no way of knowing what amount is enough. You'd imagine that dying that way is pretty damn painful yet they don't have a way of communicating that. But if they OD'ed, it would be murder so better let them suffer!

But also, euthanizing animals is becoming more taboo too. Many pets live in pain, relying in "pet mobility carts" and medications. Antidepressants for cats, epilepsy meds for dogs.. Vets prolong the suffering for money, for people who can't accept facts and do the kind and right thing. Animals have no way of communicating about side-effects from medications. Endless rehoming is thought to be better than letting go.

At least in the States, I believe it's for religious and financial reasons. Correct me if I'm wrong, but allowing someone to off themselves could be condemning them to hell. Also, to be cynical, medically assisted "checking out" is the easier, cheaper way out, instead of burning through money in a hospital.

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with ending the suffering of a terminal illness. Prolonged suffering is unnecessary, and a person should have the right to go out on their own terms.

TLDR : yes but (Wished it was for the greater good only, ie. respect and help people decide how they end their lives but capitalism will use it with its own vision and how it values human lives -not much-)

In addition to the usual religion + human life being supposedly more valuable than pets /many other animal, there's the "utility" angle.

Someone here already mentioned the "is grandma Suzanne still valuable as an asset to society ? Aaaww she had a good life then. 'K bye" and it's actually pretty huge : in a world where governments are cutting more and more social welfare budget (well, when there was one to begin with at least), promoting the right to die must include the stories of people that don't benefit from proper care and who are way more susceptible to go with the legal way out of euthanasia. And this number, with the budget cuts, older population, whatever incapacitating fuckery that might happen will grow quickly if not properly safeguarded (and I dont trust anyone in power right now to safeguard it).

I used to be completely in favour of euthanasia as a proper, respectful ending for people in pain : we had this story in France with Vincent Humbert that encapsulated all the reasons why it should be legal.

And then, capitalism kept happening and this idea of euthanasia, as beautiful as it is if properly set, increasingly became in my mind a tool to stir the masses towards global productivity/efficiency, with a few happy yet sobbing endings.

So yeah, I'm still hesitant on this matter, and I wished it could be implemented to relieve the many persons who just want a little more respect for how they wish to die. But at the same time, if nothing more is done to increase social welfare budgets, welp. We might end up with the suicide booths from Futurama 😅

Easy. Religious people who think humans are superior to any other life. This leads to killing animals for both merciful and vicious reasons. It also leads to keeping people alive by any Frankensteinian method possible while denying any death because "going to God" without enough suffering first isn't religious enough. Although big corporations also get the right to kill people (gun manufacturers, oil & gas industry, Sackler family, etc.) so long as they profit enough off the deaths.

Because while euthanasia is generally a good thing, there are also big potentials for abuse and unnecessary tragedy. We maintain a pretense of caring about these things with humans and so most governments err on the side of caution while others think they're such hot shit they can dance their way through the quagmire. Meanwhile, we openly don't give a single fuck what happens to non-human animals, and our culture is predicated on treating them like objects, so you're allowed to do whatever you want with them. Kill them because they're suffering, kill them because they bark too loud, it's all the same. It's your dog-shaped object, go nuts.

Society is not that sick to let animals to suffer

Much of it comes from Christian theology.

Suicide has long been considered one of, if not the, worst possible sins in Christianity. At least in the Catholic tradition, sins can be forgiven by confessing your sins to a priest and having them absolved. But you can't do this with suicide. Per Christian theology, even a murderer or child molester can some day repent, beg forgiveness, and be forgiven of their sins. They won't be absolved from the earthly consequences of their actions, but they'll be forgiven in the next life. That is a core message of Christianity - no actions are truly irredeemable as long as you still draw breath.

But with suicide, this isn't possible. You can't confess your sins after you're dead, and suicide means that your last act on Earth will be a mortal sin. I suppose you could maybe do confession along with assisted suicide. Maybe you have a priest on hand, swallow the poison, and then immediately confess your sin. But most religious scholars would likely argue that doesn't work. Your contrition has to be genuine for it to count.

Anyway, pardon the digression. But this really is the root of it. Even in modern Western societies. Even among people who aren't themselves active Christians. Even among those who've never stepped inside a church. Secular Western society is still heavily influenced by Christian philosophy. A strong aversion to suicide in any form is a part of this. For most Christians, voluntarily signing up for euthanasia is the easiest direct path to eternal damnation that one can achieve. The only quicker more direct way would be a murder-suicide. We've never had that same worry with animals. Christian theology doesn't assign souls to animals. And even if it did, they would have no moral blame for us choosing to put them down.

The US just pretends to be against it due to puritanical traditions. In reality we keep guns legal so people can blow their own brains out when they get fucked by late stage capitalism. Suicide is the majority vs murder when it comes to gun deaths.

It is actually legal in Canada, you have the right to kill yourself there

keeping sick people alive is a lot of profit.

Euthanasia is accepted and has been legal in Belgium for decades. It's not perfect but clearly better than nothing as it has stopped many people from needlessly suffering or worse, forcing their loved ones to discover their bodies after doing it themselves. (Though it still happens as many, many things aren't covered or extremely hard)

Short answer: religion.

"Only God can take a life"... except when it an heretic, a non believer, a sinner, ...

Killing believers = sin

Killing non believers = " the work of God"

And pets are animals and "you can do as you please".

What everyone has missed so far:

Societies typically have a value for human life - it's often cheap. A wrongful death lawsuit is an example of this.

However, individuals with names are where it gets messy and personal and emotional.

The Republican counter to Obamacare was that "Death Panels" would tell you when it was time to put your granny down because she was costing the state too much (what they said, not what Oabamacare's policy really was). Once it became a question of "look at your Grandma Stevens and ask yourself when it's time to put her down" that's when it upset people.

Also, on the flip side, pets are animals that we have forced to some degree, to put up with our BS to have a stable food source. Humans do tons of wacky shit to them. We castrate them, cut off parts of their ears and tails, cut out their uteruses, breed them to be genuine abominations, cut their hair, teach them tricks, make them wear sweaters and shoes and jewelry, and make them eat pellets made by a machine from the parts of animals we don't want to eat ourselves. Part of breeding them and buying them is the convenience of their lives in ours - we demand they be in our lives, and so people also play a role when they exit our lives. It's an unnatural life for most pets, and we caused it.

Which all depends on how much a society really gets into pets. Plenty of places eat dogs and cats because it's meat that grows itself. In parts of Eastern Europe, they only fix stray female dogs, not the males, because the patriarchal men making decisions don't want to emasculate the boy dogs.

As for euthanasia in general, compassionate care of an aged pet often doesn't align with how people put down a pet. Many shitbag people drown inconvenient animals, including pets. Some abandon their pets miles from home in hopes of them never coming back. Some only put them down when the vet bills get too expensive. A good vet will show you a chart that helps you understand how much pain an animal is in and let the owner who wants the pet to live forever for the owner's emotional needs understand that they have to make a decision to end it. This is exceptionally rare, and not the way things go for 99.999% of the species made our pets on this planet.

Lets be honest, most humans do not view pets as equals to a human. Valuing our own species over others is just part of our biology. (not saying that I agree with this view)

If people had the legal responsibility to keep paying thousands or tens of thousands (or potentially more) to keep a pet alive at its senior years, then like... I bet like 50% of pet owners will either become bankrupt or go to jail for animal cruelty.

Laws are just written with humans prioritized... I mean.. humans have healthcare¹, pets do not.

A human in an emergency situation arriving in a hospital, and they are legally required to give treatment even if the person cannot pay at the time¹, a vet can legally refuse to treat a pet in an emergency until the owner pays (not saying that would refuse, but they could).

(¹restrictions apply, varies by country)

One could argue that if euthanasia is legal, then there would be situations of: "Hey, granny is kinda taking too much resouces... maybe we should just pull the life support?" or "Okay my child has cancer and takes up too much of my money, and all this money would be wasted if the treatment fails, I'm gonna talk to the doctor and end this parasite once and for all"

It would be great if personal freedom included your decision to die on your own terms.

Canada has Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID). People can - with medical approval and assistance - choose to go out on their own terms.

Because most of the members of the society (people) belive that people have souls and animals don't.

I wish we could do for our human loved ones the same as we can do for our pets.

Religion.

Historically the primary reason that euthanasia is repeatedly challenged / legally blocked worldwide.

Because we value humans much higher than animals.

Do you have any idea how much money there is in end of life care, nursing homes, and hospice? Its a many billion dollar industry. It exists mostly to rob estates from the elderly so the kids inherit nothing. Its a truly evil thing to prolong someones suffering in order to pad your bank account.

No idea. Its kinda crazy because they will do hospice where you allow them to die and give painkillers to mitigate the torture but won't just end it. My mom had a stroke and they would not give her an overdose of barbituates but would give her some so her dehydration death was theoretically not as painful as it might otherwise be for whatever she could feel in her kinda coma condition. Took a week or more. They say 3 days without water but it takes longer than that.

Because you need to control humans, but there is no need for pets.

In fact, it seems that euthanasia and abortion are more difficult where religion is stronger.

Because pets aren't leaving anyone large sums of cash in their will.

Assisted suicide is legal in my state and 12 others..

To add to the comments; many people and laws still view animals as objects, to do with as one pleases. I still hear americans -i'm from europe- talking about animals as 'it'.

Edit; typo

A disturbing portion of the populace gets off on cruelty

I don't have a good source, but my instinct is that 'society at large' in many (probably most) places is at least in majority 'okay with human euthanasia', and has been for quite a while. It's the laws that need to catch up, but don't due to lack of political will and a vocal minority.

There's more profit to be made off a sick person slowly dying over years than a one-time procedure.
What the general population thinks rarely matters since our politicians are bought by the owning class.

because of WW2 and the experiences made there.

if euthanasia was legal, it would be immediately used against some kind of disadvantaged group, which is why it's kept forbidden.

Because we are so stupid and terrified about death.

Canada has m.a.i.d.

I think opinions are shifting as people become less religious.

Suicide only stopped being a crime in many parts of the world recently... Euthanasia is much larger step beyond that.

Let's give things time.

We live in a hierarchy of sentience. Where an animals' lives have less value then a humans.

The "at large" folk are the same folk that justify what Trump and other war powers, terrorists et al do by killing other humans (i.e. murder) for the sake of ideology. It's the same thing. These people's silly books make it so that you can't off yourself because it's a "sin". They're ok with you suffering without limbs on a daily basis without proper healthcare, die during childbirth, etc. Quitting life prematurely thoughl? No, that's clearly way worse to these people.

There is option of euthanasia and I think in some kind of gas chamber form atm in Switzerland but it costs money. Personally I think its fucked up, but from the standpoint of many doctors even its a humane solution. There were numerous polls about it, even in favor for those suffering from severe depression.