Axia College Material
Effective Persuasion
Part One While reading the essay written by Jerry Fensterman, “I See Why Others Choose To Die”, I was touched because it was written on personal experiences as opposed to those written by medical experts. His writing did persuade me that people should have the choice of euthanasia while in the final stages of a terminal illness, knowing there is no further relief for the excruciating pain they are experiencing or no additional medical treatment can be administered. During his essay, I recalled being in my mother’s hospital room during her final days before death. She was already on life support and was put into a medically induced coma to prevent her from feeling the pain her body was enduring. In the final hours of her life, it was decided that she would be removed from life support. The doctor ordered medications to be sent up from the hospital pharmacy that would be administered to help her slip away peacefully. God and my Mother obviously did not agree with this because, with the entire family crowded into the room to say our final good-byes while waiting for the doctor to disconnect the machines, my Mother died. I suppose from this experience, in certain circumstances, it is logical for individuals to provide consent for euthanasia when there is absolutely nothing else that can be done for them. If it is conducted without an individual’s consent, or if there were other alternatives for that individual, a medical professional, in no way, has the legal authority to administer lethal doses of medication to facilitate the patient’s death.
Part Two Surprisingly, the feedback from WritePoint offered few suggestions that would be useful for improvement of the essay. One that I would utilize is in the sentence wherein I described being in my mother’s hospital room. A Doctoral Rule was provided, “If not a noun (as in "human being"), the word "Being" is hard to imagine; it means "existing." Try to rewrite this without using "being"--with action words like "attending," "working," "living," "experiencing," simply "as"--or even removing "being" completely.” The action to take would be to change the word “being” to “standing”. Another suggestion made is to remove the word “absolutely” from the sentence, “I suppose from this experience, in certain circumstances, it is logical for individuals to provide consent for euthanasia when there is absolutely nothing else that can be done for them.” The WritePoint feedback states that the word is “cliché” and should not be used. Other suggestions were to check punctuation or words that were written in a passive tense.
Part Three I do not believe my essay will be construed as biased. Even though there are circumstances where medically-assisted death can be considered, not all terminally ill patients are candidates for such extreme measures. My essay, like that of Jerry Fensterman, is based on personal experiences and I believe it will be enough to persuade my reader to understand my point of view. My mother, too, was addicted to life and hers was more fulfilled than anyone I have ever known. At her final moment, she was surrounded by a husband that loved her, twelve children, thirty-two grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. She was active in the community and was involved in nearly every church function. I do understand when he states that a person can choose death over life when facing those circumstances. My mother was deeply religious and in her final moments, even though the family had made a decision, she informed us that she was not in agreement. People have their own idea as to what is politically correct for their lives, but sometimes decisions must be made that we do not approve of, especially when we are given responsibility for a loved-one’s quality of life. If you were put in that position, what would you do?