0: picture an understaffed and underfunded hospital, with a single nurse walking around calmingly asking anyone if they want it to end
Which is exactly the problem with Alzheimer; cancer is much easier; you are usually lucid but not very happy the last few weeks/months, so let's end it. Alzheimer's they cannot even ask you, as you cannot decide for yourself for probably a long time already.
The sheer horror of forgetting your children and grandchildren sickens me — and I have to say, those relatives were gone long before they were gone.
In the Netherlands (and I guess other countries), you have to arrange this very early (if you know your family has Alzheimers, like mine). Once you have symptoms or even are diagnosed, you cannot decide anymore. And you'll end up in a home, knowing nothing and no-one and often drugged up, until you die of natural causes (although the last part you don't notice anyway; your family does).
Our family have recently been in the situation where my partners 85 year old grandfather, who sometimes struggles to remember who we are, had to have his leg amputated due to some metalwork he had implanted in his knee 10 years ago having worn through his skin due to him losing muscle and being very thin from being bed bound. He has approximately zero chance of adapting to having his leg amputated and, in all honesty, most of the family hoped he would die on the operating table as he has no meaningful quality of life.
Maybe religious groups/political parties/lobbies etc; if they are against abortion, they will definitely be against ending grandma (who doesn't know who you or your grandpa are, but let's not mention that); religious people see it as suicide and murder, so off to hell with 2+ people for every euthanasia.
Catholics are an exception, but they are a relatively politically inactive minority in the US.
https://reproductiverights.org/maps/abortion-laws-by-state/ [1]
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/states-landing
[1] Florida's only yellow because it's still being fought in the courts.
also, in as much as life on earth is a preparation for the afterlife, you will always be reminded of what you failed to do in your human life, just like you may get a frequent reminder of how not graduating from university, or worse being born into a certain demographic has limited your job/life options.
It’s always an option, it’s just kind of weird that it’s illegal for trained medical professionals to help you do it certainly and painlessly.
For the medical field, the incentive is for longevity. Nursing homes make money on occupancy, they aren't going to want to kill off their primary source of income. The state might care, but they have an uphill battle if they tried pulling off soylent green.
Canada has been taking the lead with euthanasia. They propose it as a solution for such things as depression and poverty, or anything else that would make life unbearable for you (regardless of whether it's reasonable). See:
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/another-case-of-a-sick-...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/11/canada-cases-r...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/christine-...
https://nypost.com/2023/02/24/canada-considers-expanding-eut...
On the other hand, the medical establishment currently has incentives to keep people alive. That can certainly lead to perverse incentives too.
Also did you even read the articles posted? It no where states or alludes to the idea that the state is providing euthanasia to solve either depression or poverty. I really don't get how you came to that conclusion. All it says is that people with severe medical disabilities who are too impoverished to get adequate care the state isn't providing would rather die. It's free to change medical regulation allowing physician assisted suicide. On the other hand, we don't even know how to solve poverty, even if the political willpower and money suddenly appeared.
[1] Kill this patient or let them be bad mark on the hospital’s / care fac’s report sheet?
A woman diagnosed with Alzheimer's couldn't make use of this because it'll only get bad when she loses much of her mental faculty. But by that point she is not mentally fit to make that decision.
She filed a lawsuit and eventually moved to Europe to get her death with dignity there.