Arguments and Fallacies Online : Exit International

Exit International
"A peaceful death is everybody's right" is the repeated axiom of the voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide organization, Exit International.  Exit International hopes for the "provision of accurate and concise end-of-life choices information" specifically for its older and terminally ill members. The organization contends that ending ones on life is legal, but members are often encouraged to create end of life plans in order to ensure that their families do not come into conflict with the law. In the long run, Exit International hopes to decriminalize assisted suicide.

It seems to me that the organization finds and uses every roundabout way to avoid repercussions from the law. Although the organization only provides information regarding methods of voluntary euthanasia, such information given should be regarded the same way as if the staff working for the organization povided its members with the materials and/or physically assisted in the suicide. The organization holds workshops that discuss its "Peaceful Pill eHandbook," along with other topics such as the use, risks, and legal issues regarding barbituates, prescription and non-prescription drugs, gases for the use of the hypoxic death, and many other "pertinent" information. Although the workshops are reserved for members of Exit International who are over 50 or terminally ill, I believe that 1. fifty is still a fairly young age (average life expectancy for humans is 77 years), therefore healthy adults should not be provided such "services"and 2. the information Exit International provides could possibly end up in the hands of someone unhappy who is neither over 50 nor terminally ill, cauing serious ramifications. 

False dilemna is the primary fallacy in the organizations argument: if we provide information on multiple methods of suicide without actually providing the materials or performing the act, we are not assisting in suicides and therefore aren't breaking any laws. The organization also uses a Red Herring--its axiom--to distract from the fact that assisted suicide is illegal and to justify what its members do. Exit International uses appeals to pity and pathos. The organization feels that since their members are growing old (50+) or may be sick, they have a right to end their life presuming that they are just going to die anyway, which is not necessarily the case in all circumstances.