Sample Argumentative Essay: People Should Be Granted the Right to Die
An argumentative essay is a type of essay whose purpose is to advance a specific point or claim. It is a thesis-driven academic paper that features credible evidence and sound reasoning to communicate its message. The goal of this paper is to convince the reader to acknowledge the message as valid. This sample argumentative essay asserts the message that a person’s right to die should be their own rather than that of others.
While the legalization of euthanasia has been the subject of extensive public and academic discourse for decades now, it remains a polarizing and controversial issue that generates heated debates across the world. This may be due to the fact that many regard euthanasia as a moral dilemma . But despite the slow evolution of the matter, there have been changes in how euthanasia and other end-of-life issues are perceived. For instance, there are more countries around the world today where euthanasia is legal than a few decades ago including Ireland, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Norway, and Sweden among others (Englehart, 2021; The Week, 2021). The debate, of course, is predicated upon the question of whether or not a person has the right to die. The right to life is universally acknowledged. But how about the right to die? Does this right exist in the first place? With the rate at which the discourse evolves, it is reasonable to assume that the issue is still far from being decided, thus leaving those who seek it and those who oppose it in a gridlock. In light of the ongoing battle between opinions, this paper holds that the decision-making over matters of one’s death should be acknowledged as a person’s right. It is the right of a person with a sound mind, with consultation with medical professionals as a form of safety net, to determine how they end their life in face of terminal illness because they wield autonomy over their own body.
The main reason why a person should be the one to decide over their right to die is because they have autonomy over their own body. A person’s absolute ownership of their body is a universally recognized right. Provided that what one wants for one’s own body is with a sound mind and does not constitute a threat to public safety or security, then it is deemed to be acceptable. This is the principle that underlies many of the most basic rights, from more mundane rights such as the right to wear what one wants to wear to more debatable rights such as the right to undergo an abortion for medical reasons. If autonomy over one’s body is widely acknowledged, then there is no reason why this principle should not be applied in the case of end-of-life issues. As stated by Michael Irwin, a former general practitioner and patron of the British Humanist Association, “We are able to choose all kinds of things in life from who we marry to what kind of work we do and I think when one comes to the end of one's life, whether you have a terminal illness or whether you're elderly, you should have a choice about what happens to you” (Irwin, 2013). This principle is especially important, given that the conversation about end-of-life issues is situated within the context of illness, pain, and death. As Engelhart notes in her book The Inevitable: Dispatches on the Right to Die (2021), people seek death not as a self-destructive impulse but as a desire to depart in peace and without pain and with their dignity intact. It is the person who suffers the emotional, psychological, physical, existential, and financial tolls of a terminal illness. It is therefore only fitting that they be granted the power to exercise their right to die.
A person should also be able to decide on their right to die because the medical community serves as a safety net for this issue. One of the main arguments against the right to die movement is the belief that it will negatively affect vulnerable populations such as those living with mental health conditions. In other words, upholding the right to die might inadvertently enable people with mental illness to commit suicide. While this fear is certainly valid, upholding the right to die is not necessarily a slippery slope, and this is because the medical community serves as a safety net that can minimize this risk. As Jarvis (2021) notes, “In the United States, physician-assisted suicide is permitted in a slowly growing number of states, but only to ease the deaths of patients who fit a narrow set of legal criteria.” People who seek approval to terminate their life have to be evaluated and found to be mentally competent, officially diagnosed with a terminal disease, have a prognosis of half a year or shorter, and physically capable of self-administration of medications. They also need to have a history of previous requests for termination of life. These criteria serve as a safety net that will help prevent unnecessary deaths and ensure that the right to die is exercised with great prudence.
End-of-life issues will likely remain controversial topics for many years to come, and this is understandable considering the sensitive nature of death and the natural fear that people feel towards it. Death, however, is a normal and inevitable part of life, which means that the facts of it should be faced. What brings about death is something that the vast majority of people never get to have a say on. Illness, in particular, is something that no one wants but happens to countless people all the same. But that does not mean that people should have no say in how they exit this world. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
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References
Engelhart, K. (2021). The inevitable: Dispatches on the right to die. St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
Irwin, M. (2013, August 19). Euthanasia: The right to die should be a matter of personal choice. The Mirror. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/euthanasia-right-die-should-matter-2182127
Jarvis, B. (2021, May 10). We’ve had great success extending life. How about ending it? New Yorker . https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/17/weve-had-great-success-extending-life-what-about-ending-it
The Week. (2021, September 22). Countries where euthanasia is legal. https://www.theweek.co.uk/102978/countries-where-euthanasia-is-legal