Minsu Kim

Prof. Conroy

English 110 : First-Year Composition

10/02/2019

Perception of euthanasia

Euthanasia; the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (such as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy, has been a subject of controversy for over a century. It has been debated between focusing on right to privacy to relieve oneself from pain and protecting the dignity of life. 

In the News article, “Nonsense about ‘death panels’ springs back to life” by USA Today, euthanasia was not directly mentioned, but the author shows his perception about euthanasia partially by bringing up a “Death Panel”. The debate of euthanasia is originally about allowing patients who would never have a chance to leave a hospital to choose end their life or not. The article is not only mentioning about giving them a choice, but also economical and political point of view. 

In the blog, FutureofWorking The Leadership and Career Blog, the blog posted “18 Advantages and Disadvantages of Euthanasia” that lists 8 advantages and 10 disadvantages of euthanasia. The author, Natalie Regoli, gradually reveals her stance that euthanasia could be one of the ways to help people to end their life if that is what they want to do.

In the medicine journal, “Euthanasia” from JAMA Network, the author Jennifer Reiling mainly shows perception of euthanasia in University of Washington School of Medicine with the result of questionnaire. The questionnaire is about practice of Euthanasia and it is slightly different from other article because it is not discussing about pros and cons of euthanasia, but a “Positive Euthanasia” and “Negative euthanasia“. According to Jennifer Reiling, she defined two terms “positive and negative euthansia” as a “planned omission of therapies that probably would prolong life” and “use of therapy that is hoped will promote death sooner than otherwise”. She also questioned that responses may be varied at other medical schools and students’ attitudes change as their careers progress.

The author of magazine article, “How the Catholic Church Misunderstands Death With Dignity”, Wendy Kaminer, insists how chatolic church misunderstands euthanasia(a Death with Dignity) by specifying a certain Cardinal, Sean O’Malley. Kaminer is writing her article about a Death with Dignity proposal currently on the ballot in Massachusetts. For example, Kaminer claims that one of O’Malley’s preaching, “By rescinding legal protection for the lives of a category of people, the government sends a message that some people are better off dead”is wrong because a patient who want “Death with Dignity Act” needs to be medically determined such as expected lifetime of 6 months, two occasions 15 apart, and a presence of witnesses.

Purpose

An article from gale academic online, “Nonsense about ‘death panels’ spring back to life”, aims to criticize a “death panel” and to emphasize the importance of having a “voluntary discussions between doctors and patients about end-of-life care.” The author claims that euthanasia could be an option to save Medicare’s money and resources by simply doing a “humae thing”, whcih has to be done.

Natalie Regoli, the author of “18 Advantages and Disadvantages of Euthanasia”, arranges advantages and disadvantages and insists that whoever wants to end their life has an opportunity to choose so. In the second paragraph from the last of the blog, She states “We should allow people to have an opportunity to end their life if that’s what they want to do.”, we can find out that Regoli’s purpose is supporting euthanasia with advantages and impose that euthanasia could be another available method for patients when if its disadvantages is overcomed and determined carefully in the extent of understanding circumstances and possible outcome of the act. 

In the journal “Euthanasia” from JAMA Network, the author Jennifer Reiling wrote her article based on questionnaire, Percentages of Response Favoring the Practice of Euthanasia. She did not appeal any of her personal opinion. However, from 90 percent of 4th year medical students favored negative euthanasia and 46 percent of 4th year medical students favored positive euthanasia, medical students who have a lot more chances to contact with patients prefers euthanasia rather than seing them in pain. Reiling gives readers a chance to imagine whether students’ attitudes will change or not.

In the magazine article “How the Catholic Church Misunderstands Death With Dignity”, the author Kaminer focuses on how euthanasia is misunderstood as its title implies. 

Audience

The audience for the article, “Nonsense about ‘death panels’ spring back to life”, is people who are interested in politics and how budget of Medicaid is being used. For them, the article is convincing enough because since the article is providing an example of people who could not get a proper treatment in time and exact percentage of resources that could be saved .

For the journal “Euthanasia”, from JAMA, intended audience is well-educated people in the field of genetic engineering. The author, Jennifer Reiling, stated that “will the student’s attitudes change as their careers progress?” which means questioning audience that she could not answer herself as the last sentence of her article. The audience of this article, including myself will understand her purpose that she stands for a relatively neutral side than other articles. Furthermore, audience who are unfamiliar to genetic engineering and the topic ‘euthanasia,’ Reiling wrote short definition of positive and negative euthanasia.

The magazine article “How the Catholic Church Misunderstands Death With Dignity” is written relatively easily to be understood to general audience. Vocabulary of the article tends to be basic and descriptive. 

The audience of a blog, “18 Advantages and Disadvantages of Euthanasia”, mostly would be people who wants brief information on pros and cons about euthanasia, especially students who prepares a debate since it is quite a controversial topic.

Medium and the Genre

The medium of the article, “Nonsense about ‘death panels’ spring back to life”, is a newspaper and it is published in an internet or print news. The genre of the article is a persuasive news article. The author 

The medium of the article, “Euthanasia” is an academic journal on a peer reviewed journal, “JAMA Network”. The genre of the article is an informative journal. The author did not reveal her stance and opinion at all, but she is arranging the responses of questionnaire. 

For the blog, “18 Advantages and Disadvantages of Euthanasia”, a medium of the article is a blog post on a “Future of Working THE LEADERSHIP AND CAREER BLOG”. The genre of the blog post is an informative and persuasive blog because the author is mainly listing advantages and disadvantages of euthanasia, and shortly express his/her opinion.

The medium of the article  “How the Catholic Church Misunderstands Death With Dignity” is a magazine article and it is written in the magazine, “The Atlantic”. The author quotes some parts of interview.

The Stance

We could see the stance of the author of “Nonsense about ‘death panels’ spring back to life” is backing up the idea that euthanasia is a positive thing to do on the author’s phrase, “It’s the humane thing to do”. The author also has shown a negative view on a “Death Panel” by phrasing “a clumsy bit of rulemaking by the Obama administration has revived nutty talk about “Death Panel”.”  According to the author, almost one-third of Americans 65 or older believe wrongly that government could “pull the plug” of their life against their wishes. A “Death Panel” has brought that sort of misconception and the result of protecting citizens which is the basic duty of the state by not giving them enough choices to lead their lives, but preventing them to get a financial help from the country.

For the medical journal, “Euthanasia”,  the author does not express the stance or perception on euthanasia. However, she has written that most of physicians and medical students have a positive view on both positive/negative euthansia so that the readers could be convinced that euthanasia is not only a bad thing, but also could be an alternative choice for the people who are desperate.

The author of the blog, “18 Advantages and Disadvantages of Euthanasia” has clearly shown her stance by simply wrting a few paragraphs that euthanasia could be a realistic option that people who are need in euthanasia due to various reasons. She also emphasized that a decision should be made on a mentally fit and wishes through enough discussions among doctor, patient’s family, other people involved with the decision, and the patient him/herself.

The author of the magazine article, “How the Catholic Church Misunderstands Death With Dignity”, directly wrote that what Cardinal Sean O’Malley said is wrong and euthansia(“Death with Dignity”; phrased by author) could be realistic choice for the patients when it is legalized with a reasonable bases.

First of all, in our society, the word “euthanasia” itself is used in many different ways like negative and positive euthanasia, so we need to clarify the meaning. When we say dignity, we believe that doctors should not include active euthanasia or doctor-assisted suicide that directly or indirectly helps the patient commit suicide.

Therefore, the exact range of euthanasia should be limited to ‘in the case of late patients, delaying or stopping intensive care that only prolongs the time to death, so that the process of death is in the direction of protecting the patient’s dignity’. I support dignity because I think that the patient’s right to choose the process of death should be respected. If the patient has a hard time making choices, he or she should also respect the right of proxy decision by a family who knows the patient’s will. About 25% of a person’s lifetime medical expenses are spent in the last year of death and 20% just before death. It is in this situation that we should reduce the suffering and unnecessary medical expenses of terminal patients through rational life delay.

Works Cited

USA Today, “Nonsense about ‘death panels’ springs back to life.”, 7 Jan. 2011, p. 08A. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A245992062/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=5670bf00. Accessed 15 Sept. 2019.

Jennifer Reiling, “Euthanasia.” Jama, vol. 315, no. 3, 2016, p. 310., doi:10.1001/jama.2015.17071.

Natalie Regoli, “18 Advantages and Disadvantages of Euthanasia.” FutureofWorking.com, 22 July 2019, https://futureofworking.com/6-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-euthanasia/.

Wendy Kaminer. “How the Catholic Church Misunderstands Death With Dignity” 

The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 17 Sep. 2012, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/09/how-the-catholic-church-misunderstands-death-with-dignity/262347/