Topic proposal: beyond life, managing your right to die
The ted talk was targeted to the people who wanted to hear the opinions about euthanasia of
doctor Allan Saxe, the audience is implied to be educated and open minded because they
attend this type of conferences.
Author: Allan Saxe is a retired professor of the university of Texas Arlington, he has a PhD in
political science for the university of Oklahoma, Ma in political science also for the university
of Oklahoma and a Ba also in political science.
He has written many article for important media like cbs, and participated in two ted talks. He
went to suffering with his mother when she was ill, that’s when w¡he decided to start
persuading people about euthanasia.
Historical context: the movement started out of mercy when around the1800s people started
to pull on the legs of those who were hanged. After that actions manu more people started to
want to help people suffering, such actions had led us to nowadays when people make
protests to ask governments to legalize it, many goals have been reached and now many
states in the US practice euthanasia.
Summary of the source: all as nSaxes in his ted talk tries to convince people that euthanasia
is not a matter of should or shouldn’t; it should be contemplated as a human right, making a
comparison of how when our pets are really old or sick +, the vet puts them to sleep to end
their suffering. He criticizes that animals have that chinˋce all around the world but humans
no.
Rhetorical appeals: he successfully uses the three rhetorical appeals, according with what I
saw the one he insists more and with what he actually convinces people is with pathos,
giving examples of his personal life, when his mother and his friend got sick and went
through a long painful death that they didn’t want. He also achieves his convincing goal with
ethos by quoting professionals and his own research, and with logos giving example of
countries that allow euthanasia.
I liked and appreciated the ted talk because it made me think about my future and the one of
the people i care about, I certainly wouldn’t want to see them suffer. With that said I think the
author successfully used the rhetorical appeals he had.