In the National Review Online article, "Rejecting the Culture of Suicide," published on March 30th, 2015, was written by Kathryn Jean Lopez, an editor-at-large of National Review Online, and founding director of Catholic Voices USA. In this article, Kathryn Jean Lopez explains the negative risk factors on society if assisted-suicide continues to be legislated within the United States by citing Dr.Kheriaty, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine. Lopez utilizes Dr.Kheriaty to present frightening facts and statistics to persuade further her audience, therefore justifying her stance that physician-assisted suicide should not be legalized, claiming that "suicide alone is already a public health crisis." She further elaborates the positive impact and benefits it will have on society if assisted suicide is not legislated. She shares the story of a young girl, Kara Tippetts, who resisted the need of assisted suicide despite her severe condition of cancer. In this essay, I will examine and critically analyze how Lopez demonstrates the need for the rejection of physician-assisted suicide by her use in diction, facts and statistics, and her overall use of rhetorical strategies to form a persuasive argument about rejecting physician-assisted suicide. I argue that Lopez successfully convinces her audience by building her dispute around emotional connection and her use in facts and statistics. However, her credibility as the writer requires improvement. .
Kathryn Lopez begins her article by describing Kara Tippetts, a young female who was dying of cancer in Colorado, a state where assisted suicide is not legal. Tippetts wrote to another patient in Oregon, a state where assisted suicide is legal, saying that "one day the story of my young daughter will be made beautiful in her living because she witnessed my dying.
