Running Head: EUTHANASIA IS MORALLY WRONG

Rhetorical Analysis of Euthanasia Is Morally Wrong

Bianey Rios
University of Texas at El Paso

EUTHANASIA IS MORALLY WRONG

Tim Staples, a catholic representative, is intending to make persuasions to fight

legalization of euthanasia in the YouTube video, Euthanasia is Morally Wrong. This video is
an interview where Tim Staples gives an example and catholic opinions on how instead of
provoking death (practicing euthanasia), people should protect and love one another until the
end. The intensions of this video are to make a difference on the viewers mind, to persuade
them to dont give in and fight for their catholic beliefs. The purpose of this paper is to gather
information from how the author of the video Euthanasia Is Morally Wrong is presenting the
argument, by analyzing the intended audience, purpose, and rhetorical appeals.
Euthanasia Is Morally Wrong is a video where the intended audience are Catholics, and
any individual with a computer that has Internet access. This videos intended audience are
clearly Catholics because he is emphasizing their religious beliefs. Tim Staples directly says,
we as Catholic Christians must wake up (catholic answers, 2010). The intended audience is
very clear and noticeable because in the video he always directs towards Catholics, and as the
name says Catholic Answers on YouTube, the video is for Catholics to find answers that they
may be curious about. This video undoubtedly is not trying to persuade any other people with
different religious beliefs. On the other hand, in order to watch the video people also must have a
computer with Internet access. Even though intended audience are Catholics, everyone with a
computer with Internet access is able to watch the video.
The purpose of this video Euthanasia Is Morally Wrong, is to influence the audience
that euthanasia is wrong and they have to do something in order to stop the legalization. This
video only gives the opinion of the Catholic Church against euthanasia, leaving the audience
without information about the topic, and only trying to persuade the audience based on Catholic
beliefs. In the video, Tim Staples says that Catholics should vote for pro-life candidates

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(Catholic Answers, 2010). By saying this, Tim Staples is trying to persuade the Catholic
community on the way they vote in order to defend their beliefs. In the video he also says that
physician assisted suicide (euthanasia) is evil and must be stopped (Catholic Answers, 2010).
By saying this, he is giving his opinion and showing that he is bias towards the subject. As
showed in the evidence, the video is trying to persuade the viewers about how bad euthanasia is
and that the catholic community needs to defend and practice what they preach.
In addition, the video Euthanasia Is Morally Wrong has a weak logistic rhetorical
appeal. In the video there is not many evidence like facts, statistics, or citations supporting the
message he is trying to reach. The only fact that the author of the video gives is that there are
already 3 states in the U.S. that have legalized euthanasia; Montana, Washington, and Oregon
(Catholic Answers, 2010). This is the only evidence that the author gives in the video to
support the point he is trying to make, and that makes it with lack of logistic. Due to the
information gathered from the video, it is clearly noticeable the lack of logos.
On the contrary, pathos is a very strong rhetorical appeal on Euthanasia Is Morally
Wrong the video is based mostly on the emotions in order to persuade the audience. There are
emotional narratives, and motivational appeals that make this video have a strong emotional
appeal. In the video an example of a woman with terminal cancer is given, this woman did not
wanted to go to the hospital because she was scared of being killed there, when she finally went
to the hospital a doctor practiced euthanasia on her because the bed was needed (Catholic
Answers, 2010). This example is trying to touch the audiences emotions for them to
understand. As I said before, in the video Tim Staples talks about loving one another and
respecting the nature of the human being and that people should not put them down (practicing
euthanasia on a human being) instead help them by giving them care and alleviate their pain

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(Catholic Answers, 2010). Accordingly to this evidence given it is noticeable how the author
of the video is trying to approach the audience by giving them emotional examples, and beliefs
from the Catholic Church. Pathos is evidently the strongest rhetorical appeal in this video due to
the emotions, and beliefs that the author mentions.
Likewise the logical appeal, Euthanasia Is Morally Wrong has a weak credibility
appeal due to the fact that the video is very bias and has no reliable sources. Instead of giving
information that could be useful to prove the intended idea, the author strictly talks about his
ideas and beliefs. At first, the author never opens the topic in order to show points of view on
how it is wrong and how it is right. In the video it is mentioned that euthanasia is absolutely
immoral and all Catholics should not vote for politicians that support it (Euthanasia Is Morally
Wrong, 2010). The author of the video is obviously being bias due to the religious beliefs. In
addition, the video has weak ethos because it does not provide credible sources, there is not
much information about the topic except the Catholic beliefs that he is clearly trying to get to the
audience. He mentions examples like the woman that had terminal cancer, but that is more of an
emotional appeal. This video consists of very little credibility, due to the biased messages about
euthanasia and the lack of credible sources, except of what the author believes in.
To conclude, the YouTube video Euthanasia Is Morally Wrong was designed to
persuade catholic viewers that euthanasia is morally wrong and the intended audience should be
against it. This is the obvious outcome of the rhetorical analysis made to find the purpose of the
videos intentions. A thing that needs to be mentioned, is that the lack of credibility mentioned
might be contradicted if we are talking only of the intended audience because, for Catholics this
video might have strong ethos due to the fact that the author is mostly talking about religious
beliefs. Due to this, ethos could be very strong if you were looking at the video in a Catholic way

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but not if the analysis is not being bias. This investigation of how this video was made, was by
analyzing the intended audience, purpose, and the rhetorical appeals from the video.

EUTHANASIA IS MORALLY WRONG

References
Catholic Answers (2010, September 24). Euthanasia is morally wrong [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn9NTe-rBg0