Comparison Essay - the Viewpoint of a Magazine Influences

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The bias of the writers from two different articles has shown clearly through the home page, headlines, table of contents, arguments for each side of legalizing voluntary euthanasia. The source of “Killing us softly: the dangers of legalizing assisted suicide” article states its mission “is to advance health promotion and wellness interventions for children and adults with disabilities”. Evidently, this website supports research for standard and appropriate medical treatment which is opposite to the other article from euthanasia supporters. Moreover, the first article’s headline is written in distinct negative manifestation to voluntary euthanasia. Nonetheless, the second source for supporting euthanasia does not contain bias in its headline, surprisingly, the article’s table of contents instead of giving a fair representation of voluntary euthanasia, it is inclined to supporting mercy killing. The background of two writers also affect the arguments in the articles. To be more specific, the author of “Killing us softly: the dangers of legalizing assisted suicide” has the background related to disability rights, and since the mercy death has a negative impact on vulnerable communities, the arguments in this article is strongly biased to the against legalizing euthanasia side. The other author has expertise in philosophy which tends to follow utilitarianism theories of pursuing happiness, therefore, the article “Voluntary Euthanasia” follow the opposite direction. Undeniably, the bias of each article is a result of different viewpoints of authors.

It can be seen clearly that there are strong arguments for both sides of legalizing voluntary euthanasia, and the debate of whether countries should legalize mercy death or not still continues.

References

Golden, M. (2009). Killing us softly: the dangers of legalizing assisted sucide (1st ed., pp. 17-23). Disability and Health Journal. Retrieved from http://www.disabilityandhealthjnl.com/article/S1936-6574(09)00073-9/pdf

Young, R. (2011). Voluntary Euthanasia. Plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 23 April 2016, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/euthanasia-voluntary/#Fiv

WHO | WHO Definition of Palliative Care. (2016). Who.int. Retrieved 23 April 2016, from http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en/

BBC - Ethics - Euthanasia: Anti-euthanasia arguments. Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 23 April 2016, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/euthanasia/against/against_1.shtml