"Every story has a beginning" (Drum 27). Kevin Drum's opening words in "My Life to Leave" instantly pique his readers' interest by indicating a discussion of a struggle. Even though he continues the article by telling the heart-breaking story of his father-in-law's seven-year battle with cancer, the readers realize while reading the remainder of the article that Drum's opening also describes the quest for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) that Drum details. He fights for physician-assisted suicide because PAS enables terminally ill patients to legally receive and consume lethal medication that was prescribed by their physician. One reason that many choose to not support PAS is that the action appears to be simply suicide since it is an act of taking one's life. Throughout his article, Drum uses the three appeals, ethos, logos, and pathos, to successfully convince readers to support the legalization of PAS. However, he most effectively employs pathos to attempt to emotionally convince readers of all ages that PAS is different from suicide by showing how merciful PAS is in different instances. 

Drum effectively opens his article by using pathos to emotionally sway the aging population to agree with his argument that PAS is not suicide. At the beginning of his story, Drum tells of his father-in-law's seven-year battle with cancer. Drum describes the immense pain and physical limitations that his father-in-law, Harry, experienced towards the end of his life. Drum shares Harry's decision to commit suicide to end his suffering. Harry is forced to die alone because "assisted suicide was illegal" (27) in California and his family was not legally permitted to be with him. This story evokes deep sympathy because even though some readers may not approve of Harry's actions, many, especially those in the same age group, can feel pity for him because of his horrible condition. Their pity may cause them to turn a blind eye to such actions because they would want to do such a thing if they were in that scenario. Drum also tries to upset his readers by sharing Harry's isolated death. Such a death would have an immense impact on a reader who is aging because many of them fear dying alone. With the emotions of sympathy and sadness aroused, Drum's pointed comment about PAS' illegality is meant to evoke slight outrage at Harry's isolated death because releasing himself from immense pain was illegal. Already, Drum attempts to influence those who are older to unintentionally align themselves with his position through using pathos to evoke specific emotions. 

By connecting PAS to socially acceptable deaths, Drum aims to change the way that the readers of all ages emotionally understand PAS. Because the name PAS labels the process as suicide by its very name, many readers refuse to support it, as they believe that killing oneself is morally wrong. To counteract this idea, Drum describes the beginning of the movement for legalized PAS. Karen Ann Quinlan's parents were forced to go to the state to remove their daughter, who was in a "persistent vegetative state", from life support because it was illegal to kill someone prematurely (28). Quinlan's situation led to the legalization of end of life directives and do-not-resuscitate orders (28).These forms of death are considered merciful because they release a patient from further suffering. By associating these forms of death with PAS, Drum tries to convince his readers to consider PAS as a socially acceptable way to escape a sub-human existence that arises from having a terminal illness. He desires that his readers understand that PAS deaths are not suicide. Instead, these deaths are "nothing more than aiding the natural dying process" (29). Thus, Drum attempts to create an emotional difference between the two actions. Instead of being associated with a bad connotation, Drum has connected PAS to mercy, dignity, and peace. Considering PAS with the aforementioned emotions can blind the readers to the fact that PAS is suicide and can lead them to support such an action.

Towards the end of his article, Drum tells another story to emotionally involve his readers that are younger in his argument that because, in his opinion, PAS is not suicide, it should be legalized. When Bethany Maynard was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2012, she chose to perform PAS rather than die from cancer. Since she lived in California, where PAS was illegal, she and her husband moved to Oregon, where it was legal. Maynard's story touches so many because she was "young, attractive, articulate, [and] dying of brain tumor" (30). Many in the young adult population would find a special tragedy of someone their own age dying. Because they would want to be able to do something similar, most readers sympathize with her decision. Those in the young adult population would be convinced to feel more strongly about PAS because they would realize that they might end up in similar positions. However, they would not want to believe that they were committing suicide. Thus, these people would choose to believe that PAS is different than suicide because people often make exceptions for themselves. Due to their emotions that arise from Bethany's story, many readers, especially those who are young, soften their opinion that PAS is suicide to the idea that it is a merciful death. 

Drum ends the article with pathos by sharing his own connection to PAS, which causes readers to believe that PAS is a merciful way to prevent suffering. He gives great detail about his own battle with cancer, which informs readers how much suffering he endures. Being aware of his experience causes readers to feel sympathy for him.  Drum then becomes deeply personal with the reader. He describes the way that the cancer, if not stopped, will eventually destroy his body in painful ways. He states that he does not want to die connected to various machines at a hospital. Instead, "When the end is near, I want to take my own life" (60). Having this concrete example of suffering leaves some readers sympathetic to his situation instead of feeling the horror that would normally be felt if one read someone's intention to commit suicide, This is because the story makes terminal illnesses and PAS more real to the reader. These readers have been manipulated by the use of emotions to accept Drum's argument. Drum has masterfully evoked emotions in the readers that cause them to overlook the fact that PAS is actually suicide and instead support it as a way to escape suffering. 

Even though he primarily uses pathos to make his argument, Drum also utilizes logos to explain the reasons that readers should support PAS. Drum cites the Oregon government when he shows that PAS has accounted for only one third of a percent of deaths in Oregon for the past year (28). Being aware that this end-of-life-initiative is not often used may convince readers to support PAS because they feel it is different to turn a blind eye to a few deaths than to legalize countless suicides.  Drum also includes statistics that show how widely the support for PAS has grown. By indicating that two-thirds of the country support with the idea of PAS, he is trying to convince the non-supporters to change their mind because everyone else is supporting PAS (29). This is considered the logical fallacy begging the question. Throughout his article, Drum uses logos to support his argument that PAS should be legalized.

Drum uses ethos to strengthen his argument that PAS should be legalized because readers to respect his opinion. Being a writer for a well-known journal, Mother Jones, gives him situated ethos because working for such a journal would indicate that Drum researches his article and does writes creditable papers. He creates invented ethos through his intelligence of the subject by sharing of his two personal experiences with PAS. He also shows immense goodwill towards the people. His whole argument is based on the fact that he wants everyone to have the ability to protect him or herself from a painful or degrading death by having PAS as an option. Drum uses these instances of ethos to help make his argument that PAS should be legalized more credible to his readers.

Throughout his article, Drum skillfully employs all three appeals to convince his readers to support PAS. By emphasizing pathos, Drum emotionally convinces the readers that PAS is not suicide. While using emotions is effective, he never explains or factually supports this claim. He claims that PAS is simply helping the inevitable. He never addresses the fact that terminally ill patients are often given underestimated timelines, and some may miraculously overcome their illness. With this in mind, Drum does not explain how committing PAS six months before their projected death is simply quickening death rather than committing suicide. Nonetheless, the readers are convinced to support PAS because Drum so masterfully uses pathos to evoke certain emotions to convince readers that PAS is not suicide. 

