[Angus]

Some years ago when my father was dying of lung cancer he was in such extreme pain that we couldn't even touch him to wash him without his screaming in agony. My brothers and I took it in turns to care for him and we had a wonderful hospice nurse who would come to the house twice a day to give him his morphine injection but towards the end nothing could alleviate his pain. Watching him die like that, slowly and in unimaginable agony, was torture to the family, and I almost had a nervous breakdown because of it. That experience convinced me that no-one has the right to prolong the suffering of another human being in a situation where there is absolutely no hope of recovery.

Why is it we can put an animal down for humane reasons, but not a fellow human being who must suffer to the bitter end because of someone else's idea of morality?