The Evaluation of "Dutch Law Would Allow Assisted Suicide for Healthy Older People"

The Evaluation of

"Dutch Law Would Allow Assisted Suicide for Healthy Older People"

 By DAN BILEFSKY and CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE

 

The number of articles about euthanasia has been growing and growing as the world is becoming a more opened place for such intricate things to talk about. When I was searching for a good material, it was not a problem to find this interesting one, about how the Netherlands wants to deal with euthanasia from 2017 on.

The writers of the article make a clear starting argument, saying that in the Netherlands they want to initiate euthanasia for healthy old people, who have had enough. Making such a straightforward statement makes the reader want to continue to read.

As for the introduction of the topic, they give us a mere background of the Netherlands, which legalised euthanasia in 2001, being the very first country ever to do that.

In the next paragraph they give us an opponent and a proponent view of this issue, bringing up the opinion of some critics and some believers. This would not be enough to make us want to read on, so they have to give us some specific argumentations.

This is what happens in the next paragraph, where we can learn about what the Dutch minister of health thinks about it all, she clearly states how older people need this, since they can no longer take care of themselves and they no longer have any relatives to take care of them. The writers use a perfect method to grab our attention, which is quoting. They are quoting Edith Schippers's words and it is a good way to emphasise the importance of the issue, by copying the exact same words she had said.

They are further explaining what the letter Schippers had read says. It is about the future of this law, which may be drafted by the end of 2017. Adding such an information in the middle makes their validity even more supported.

After this segment, they introduce an opponent argument about how the law makes everything unethical and morally incorrect. The writers not only bring in one, but two opponent statements, one in general then one specifically quoted from an influential person, saying how inhumane it is to talk people into dying.

The last few paragraphs of the article clearly state the opposing attitude, since we cannot find any supporting matters. We cannot be sure, what the two writers think about the issue,  but if they were really impartial, they would have included some supporting ideas of the euthanasia.

At the end of the article, they say how unstable and uncertain the situation is, because they are having elections in 2017, which may change the whole ruling government.

Overall, I think, this is a good but very short article, which would have required more argumentations both for and against, since like this we can only see the negative side of the story. It seems to me that we, readers cannot think about the issue and make a judgement for ourselves.

(533 words)

Works Cited

Dutch Law Would Allow Assisted Suicide for Healthy Older People

By DAN BILEFSKY and CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZEOCT. 13, 2016

http://nyti.ms/2e18rdv

New York Times