Physician Assisted Suicide Essay Example for Free

Physician Assisted Suicide Essay Physician assisted suicide is one of those moral and ethical questions that are destined to remain as controversial and contested as abortion. It is often easy to make moral judgments on aspects of humanity when one is not in the situation themselves. It has to be taken into account that a number of variables are present in the argument then merely whether or not someone has the right to their own lives. It is an issue that is beyond legal parameters and extends to the philosophical. We are able to argue that life is not our own, that it is a God given purpose, until we are beset with burdening pain and suffering. One cannot argue that it is simply a religious or moral standpoint, and one cannot argue it as a legal issue either. Many physicians themselves stand for the rights of individuals to choose a dignified and unlabored death and this is where the crux lies: the fact that they see far more than the average ignoramus has the right to contribute. In this case, far more evidence weights for the legal right to choose physician assisted suicide, than it does to deny the right. Physician assisted suicide is defined as the â€Å"voluntary termination of one’s own life by the administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician. †(Medterms, 2008). University of Washington School of Medicine offers us two examples of the moral case for suicide: Skip and Angela. Skip is 50 years of age, male and suffers from metastatic nonsmall cell lung cancer. He has had complications with the chemotherapy to the point where he is not sure it is worth having, but is also afraid not to have it (UWSM, 2008). Angela is 72 years of age and is in the final stages of congestive heart failure, having suffered to heart attacks. She is exhausted simply from living and her condition is unpredictable (UWSM, 2008). In these cases we have to take into account that there are more than one issue we are dealing with. In Skip’s case, he is destined for almost certain death while Angela may have one year or ten years ahead of her and we are never certain when she will die. In this case we have to evaluate what the quality of life will be like for each of them in the event that they do, by some miracle, live for another ten years. Granted, the outsider may argue that Angela should not give up on life especially if her time is indeterminate, but will her quality of life be such that she wishes to continue? Skip on the other hand is terminally ill, he knows he is going to die and again, the medication makes him so uncomfortable that one wonders if he wants to suffer through it. The University of Washington School of Medicine determines three types of physician assisted suicide: terminal sedation (sedation until unconsciousness and allowing them to die during this constant sedation); withholding of life-support or sustaining treatments (the patient decides not to take the treatments necessary to keep them alive) and pain medication that hastens death (doses of pain drugs that decrease respiration or speed up the dying process) (UWSM, 2008). We have discussed what physician assisted suicide is and seen possible cases where it may be augmented, but now the argument is whether or not it is legal and whether or not the law really has a right to an opinion on it. A cat is ill and even though it is beloved of the family, it is taken to the veterinarian and put ‘to sleep’. This is seen as merciful. However, if a human is suffering unbearably, they do not have the same luxury of hastening their death. The difference is, of course, that the cat did not have a choice. In the one case where a person is capable of understanding death and their condition and capable of voicing what they want, they are unable to do so. Eleven years ago, Oregon State became the first to initiate the choice to a dignified death. Last year 341 terminally ill took advantage of the option. On the 4th November Washington will decide whether they will implement their own Death with Dignity Act (Yardley, 2008). Prior to this attempt to secure the law, they had failed to implement it because voters refused to vote in favour of the movement (Yardley, 2008). The truth of the matter is that the voters were not those who were going to make use of it. Strangely enough, a democratic society should by definition allow the rights of all people, not just those who are healthy. We could describe the situation as follows: Martin Luther King fought for equal rights to all citizens of the United States and so the liberated African American came into being. Susan B Anthony and Emiline Pankhurst became women’s rights activists fighting for the rights of women to be treated as equals and today we have the liberated woman. The Battle of Little Bighorn and several others fought for the rights of Native Americans to lands and equal rights and to an extent (only an extent), they have their freedom too. Now, place in the equation, the dying man or woman: cast into the same bracket as women, African Americans and Natives. Included in this bracket is the homosexual. The comparison here is that the choice to live or die is actually more morally decent that gay marriages are in the religious sector. Despite this, more emphasis is placed on homosexual rights than the right to die with dignity. Legality or merely creating an argument where there needn’t be one? Dr David Stolinksy considers the legal wrangle to be indecent. â€Å"An ethical question must be answered by reference to ethical standards such as the Hippocratic Oath. This oath has been taken by young physicians for 2400 years. †(Stolinsky, 2006). Stolinksy voraciously attacked articles he read about the essence of physician assisted suicide, saying that what is often read about the issue is packed to exploding with references to court cases, legal procedures and rulings, but that their never an ounce of ‘ethical wisdom’ contained in them. In his view, it is an ethical issue and never has been a legal one (Stolinksy, 2006). Stolinsky does not himself defend the physician assisted suicide, but makes a crucial point in saying that the law really has no idea what they are talking about (given that they have little to do with emaciated and uncomfortable terminally ill people). Dr Jack Kevorkian is a Parkinson’s sufferer and an activist for the right to die with dignity. In his case, he knows that one day he will be in an unbearable state and hopes that the choices he can make will help others to make similar decisions (Ferguson, 2007). Dr Ferguson believes that â€Å"Working at HospiceCare, where honoring every patients end-of-life choices is a core value, I have no dispute with Governor Gardners desire to make his own decisions as life draws to an end. †(Ferguson, 2007). Indeed seeing the dying on a daily basis, her argument is to allow as many choices as possible for the patient, not deny them any. Although she believes that proper pain management can be accomplished and that patients need not die in unbearable pain, she does believe the ultimate choice should be theirs. Let us be certain here of one thing and that is the difference between normal suicidal ideation and physician assisted suicide. Suicide due to self-mutilating circumstances (drugs and self hate), or even pure depression are situations that can be reversed and treated and there is the potential for the person to live a happy, healthy and full life. Physician assisted suicide is where the light at the end of the tunnel has been blocked off and the future is not so bright. Perhaps the most controversial and least comfortable argument is that of the death sentence. Simply put, if the death penalty is considered humane, then why is not humane to allow the choice to die with dignity. Furthermore, we have to look at the ethical argument that has been applied to the death sentence: by some rather twisted logical inception, the ability to take a life has been granted to a few people who believe it is their right to decide a criminal should die. If we are to use this as a comparative argument for physician assisted suicide then we can use the following example: A man rapes and murders several women. He is tried and found guilty with the sentence of death. The argument is that he is likely, by psychological profiling, to commit further atrocities and due to the severity of his crime, deserves to die. The question is, what if he never commits another crime and completely reforms himself? In the same light, a patient given 6 months to live and chooses the suicide route. He could very well have lived another ten years but who can say that he would have? In both cases there is a shadow of doubt – a risk. Lawrence Hinman of University of San Diego puts forward the awkward question too that the death penalty follows the lex talionis principle of an ‘eye for an eye’ and by extension a ‘life for a life’. He asks why then it is not applied to torturers (Hinman, 2008: 5). Evidently the principle does not work. By logic, this makes the lex talionis not only unfair but also impractical. A cancer sufferer is not a criminal, although they are not exempt from the disease, but if it appears to be ethical to take a life-for-a-life, then surely it is even more ethical to take ones own? You have more right to your own body then the judge on the podium does. So what the argument therefore entails is that if it is both legal and ethical (doubtful) to sentence someone to death, then it should be legal and ethical to let someone choose to die if they are ill. With regards to the argument that the patient may actually live, the same could be said for the rapist who may actually be able to donate blood or stem-cells for a leukaemia patient if he is given the right to live. Neither case can be proved or disproved. Are we left at square one again? It depends very much on which side of the proverbial fence you fall. A person can only really decide if something is ethical or moral really when they have experienced it themselves. The right to physician assisted suicide should be given. It is no more or less ethical than any other moralistic standpoint. Consider the debacle that still descends on gay marriages, abortion, and even forced prostitution: are they any more morally sound then physician assisted suicide? Consider if prostitution is legalised and the countless women held under torturous circumstances under that very law? Is that any more ethical? Given that the majority of voters in the United States are those that are not in the position where they have to face their death, the intentions are a little selfish. They are concerned for their own loss, not for the suffering of those who are about to die. The loved ones are more fearful of losing those close to them then they are concerned for the dignity and suffering of those who are dying.

Tensile Properties of Polypropylene

Tensile Properties of Polypropylene Introduction If an engineer wanted to design a bridge to span a river, it would be absurd to consider building it out of papier-mà ¢chà © or rubber. We know this because we know something about the demands that will be put on the bridge and we know that these materials do not satisfy the requirements. After considering other materials, perhaps titanium or high tech aluminium alloys, we may discount them on the grounds of cost even if they do have suitable mechanical properties to make a good bridge. Eventually we may decide on steel; but which one? There are thousands to choose from. Which has the best properties at an affordable price? The cost effectiveness of any material is a matter not to be dealt with here but we must ask which steel has the most appropriate physical properties. In order to answer this question, we must conduct tests on different steels and compare the results when samples of the steel are tested to destruction. Polypropylene has the ability to crystallise which was a very exciting prospect as it is also an economical material so the popularity of it grew and production began all across most of Europe its use. Lots of different types of polypropylene have been under production since the early 1950s mainly because of its insulating properties. it is used in many different fields, bumpers and some of the interior in a car is developed using polypropylene its also widely used in electrical components because of its great electrical resistance at high temperatures. It has similar properties to polyethylene. Because of its use in many different fields its necessary to test the material in a variety of ways. In this test the tensile properties will be examined at different testing speeds. This test is done because The test process involves placing the test specimen in the testing machine and slowly extending it until it fractures. During this process, the elongation of the gauge section is recorded against the applied force. The data is manipulated so that it is not specific to the geometry of the test sample. Theory Polypropylene, like other plastics, typically starts with the distillation of hydrocarbon fuels into lighter groups called fractions some of which are combined with other catalysts to produce plastics (typically via polymerisation or poly-condensation) For example, the polymerisation of propylene, which is identical to ethylene except that one hydrogen substituent has been replaced by a methyl (CH3) group, yields polypropylene. This material has a higher melting point (160-170 oC), higher tensile strength, and greater rigidity than polyethylene. Figure 1- Propylene monomers polymerisation to polypropylene Depending on how they are linked or joined (chemical bonds or intermolecular forces) and on the arrangement of the different chains that forms the polymer, the resulting polymeric materials can be classified as: Thermoplastics Elastomers Thermosets Depending on the chemical composition, polymers can be inorganic such as glass, or they can be organic, such as adhesives of epoxy resin. Organic polymers can be also divided into natural polymers such as proteins and synthetic polymers as thermosets materials. Description of apparatus The apparatus used the most for the testing part of the experiment was the zwick tensile testing machine this is a highly accurate piece of equipment as it has high resolution angle measurement which allows excellent repeat accuracy. This type of machine has two crossheads; one is adjusted for the length of the specimen and the other is driven to apply tension to the test specimen he machine must be able to generate enough force to fracture the specimen. The machine must be able to apply the force quickly or slowly enough to properly mimic the actual application. Finally, the machine must be able to accurately and precisely measure the gauge length and forces applied Figure 2- Tensile testing machine (diagrammatic sketch form) Test procedure The test will be carried out using the Zwick tensile testing machine, with 3 different specimens each of them will be extended at different speeds Specimen 1: Extension speed= 100 mm/min Specimen 2: Extension speed= 50 mm/min Specimen 3: Extension speed= 12.5 mm/min Before testing the specimens, they must be measured before and after the test to see what impact the test had on the specimens After the measurement, have been taken its required to make a table to compare the load to the extension this graph will be required to estimate relevant values that will be needed to complete the calculations. For all the specimens you are required to obtain a verity of tensile properties including: Nominal yield stress Youngs modulus Fracture stress (nominal and true) Tensile ductility Results Specimen (mm) Average (mm) Av.CSA = tw ( 1 T 2.13 2.18 2.20 2.17 10.20 W 4.68 4.73 4.70 4.70 2 T 2.13 2.15 2.16 2.14 10.10 W 4.68 4.72 4.71 4.70 3 T 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.15 10.11 W 4.70 4.72 4.69 4.70 Specimen 1 calculated results when extended at speed of 100 mm/min Gauge Length (mm) 33.00 Initial cross-sectional area () 10.21 Fracture length (mm) (55-33) 22.00 Thickness at fracture (mm) 0.91 Width at fracture (mm) 2.50 Cross-sectional area at Fracture () 2.28 Load at yield (N) 270.00 Load at fracture (N) 170.00 Nominal yield stress () 26.45 Extension at high yield (mm) 1.54 Young modulus () 566.79 Nominal fracture stress () 16.65 True fracture stress () 74.56 Tensile Ductility (mm) 0.66 Specimen 2 calculated results when extended at speed of 50 mm/min Gauge Length (mm) 33.00 Initial cross-sectional area () 10.10 Fracture length (mm) (123-33) 90.00 Thickness at fracture (mm) 0.93 Width at fracture (mm) 2.61 Cross-sectional area at Fracture () 2.43 Load at yield (N) 262.50 Load at fracture (N) 172.50 Nominal yield stress () 25.99 Extension at high yield (mm) 1.54 Young modulus () 556.93 Nominal fracture stress () 17.08 True fracture stress () 70.98 Tensile Ductility 2.72 Specimen 3 calculated results when extended at speed of 12.5 mm/min Gauge Length (mm) 33.00 Initial cross-sectional area () 10.11 Fracture length (mm) (242-33) 209.00 Thickness at fracture (mm) 0.88 Width at fracture (mm) 2.01 Cross-sectional area at Fracture () 1.77 Load at yield (N) 273.75 Load at fracture (N) 267.50 Nominal yield stress () 27.08 Extension at high yield (mm) 110.26 Young modulus () 8.08 Nominal fracture stress () 26.46 True fracture stress () 151.13 Tensile Ductility 6.33 Calculations of average cross sectional area specimen 1 Average cross sectional area = Average thickness x Average width Average cross sectional area = 2.17 mm x 4.70 mm = 10.20 Calculations of specimen 1 Nominal yield = Nominal yield = = 26.45 Youngs modulus= Youngs modulus= = 566.79 Nominal fracture stress = Nominal fracture stress = = 16.65 True fracture stress = True fracture stress = = 74.56 Tensile ductility = Tensile ductility = = 0.66 mm Graphs Figure 3- Graph of load vs extension for specimen 1- Figure 4- Graph of load vs extension for specimen2- Figure 5- Graph of load vs extension for specimen 3- Discussion Unsurprisingly when you inspect between the three graphs you can see a slight pattern occur which is that the faster you extend the Polypropylene the quicker it breaks. The graph readings are used to find how much it was extended when broken so that the tensile ductility can be worked out. There have been errors in the graphs because in the laboratory the measured extension of the break was 22mm whereas the zwick tensile testing machine made a graph that showed it to be a lot less around 8mm which is surprising to have such a varied result. Retrieving most of the results from the graph required a lot of estimation because specimens one and two had scales of 20 and specimen 3 had a scale of 50 these both arent precise enough to get an accurate reading of the graph so a lot of estimation was required. As it can be seen in the results the extension at high yield point was very different for specimen 3 compared to the other specimens, this at first glance could be considered as an anomaly even though this was expected because the less stress that is put on the specimen meant that the extension of the yield would be higher but such a big gap wasnt expected. However, looking at the results of the other groups in the lab it shows that the result is acceptable. The other result that differed in specimen 3 when compared to the other specimens was the load at fracture this is because specimen 3 extended for a much longer distance then the other two so there was much more load at fracture which meant that the fracture stress was much greater too as shown in the results. Also, glass transition temperature had to be controlled so that the polypropylene wasnt too brittle, as temperature is hard to get accurate most of the readings might have differed because of it. Conclusion It can be seen in this test how speed effects the tensile properties of polypropylene, as the results and graphs show that when tension is applied quicker as its done in the first specimen it can take a lot less stress to break the polypropylene compared to the 3rd specimen which took a lot more tension because it expanded much more than the other 2 specimens as seen in figure 6. The results of the test are reliable but improvements could have been made the graph could have a much smaller scale which would have made the readings off the graph much easier to obtain. Also, there were assumptions that were made while doing this for example when working out the youngs modulus we had to assume that the line between the origin and the high yield point is linear. Figure- 6 Photos of the 3 specimens before and after the test. References Information https://www.creativemechanisms.com/blog/all-about-polypropylene-pp-plastic http://www.bpf.co.uk/plastipedia/polymers/pp.aspx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensile_testing Images http://www.chemistry.wustl.edu/~edudev/Designer/session4.html

Love in Andrew Marvell in To His Coy Mistress and John Donnes The Sunn

Love in Andrew Marvell in To His Coy Mistress and John Donne's The Sunne Rising These two poems, "To His Coy Mistress" and "The Sunne Rising" are similar poems, they are both metaphysical (metaphysical means more than physical) poems written around Shakespeare's time. The main theme of these poems is the same; it is romance and the love of a woman. Yet the two poets have very different opinions on these two things. Within both poems are arguments, in "To His Coy Mistress" it is with the woman and in "The Sunne Rising" it is with the sun. "The Sunne Rising" is about a mans argument with the sun over how important it is compared to his woman. "To his Coy Mistress" is about a man trying to seduce the woman. The main theme of the two poems is love. There are other themes in the poems which are linked to love, in "To his Coy Mistress" the theme time and how it is passing by is introduced> The three stanzas develop the theme, in the first stanza the narrator in the poem talks about how they could be together forever, "Till the conversion of the Jews" this is saying how they have all the time in the world so they can take it slow, in the second stanza time speeds up, "The grave's a fine and private place, But none, I think do there embrace." This means that he will not be able to love her when she is dead and alone. In the third stanza the man is saying they can't stop time, they should take things fast and make time try and keep up with them. "The Sunne Rising" has a very different theme, it is the sun and the world, instead of the argument being with the woman about them being together, in "The Sunne Rising" it is about how the sun think... ...entre is, these walls, thy sphere." This is saying that if you shine here sun you are shining on my whole world, this room is my world and my woman is the centre of it. This shows how Donne uses imagery to illustrate the mans love for the woman and how he feels about her. This shows how both writers feel that imagery is a good way to get feelings across within a progressing argument. These two poems have similarities in structure, poetic voice, use of imagery, tone and in the use of themes. Yet both poems also have difference in these same areas. In "The Sunne Rising" he already has his woman and in "To his Coy Mistress" he is trying to seduce the woman. I believe "The Sunne Rising" by John Donne was the more successful poem because I thought the author got the mans feelings for the woman across to the reader better.

Technology and the Human Genome Project :: Essays Papers

Technology and the Human Genome Project Technology is changing the way the world works in profound ways at an unprecedented rate. As we speak, scientists in labs around the world are decoding the remaining portion of the genome map. One day (even now), with the information compiled in GenBank, scientists can discover new drugs, new methods of gene therapy, and other preventive measures which will vastly improve the quality of life (NCBI Â ¶1). David Smith, previously a director of the Department of Energy, said, "These are exciting and challenging times for biological researchers. The wealth of information and capabilities now being generated by the various genome projects and other biological endeavors will lead over the next two decades to more insights into living systems than have been amassed in the past two millennia. Biology is truly undergoing a revolution" (Walters 545). There are only two major problems facing researchers in their efforts to put the massive amounts (terrabytes) of data generated from the Human Genome Project (HGM) to use. The first and most prohibitive problem is cost. Over a billion dollars have already been sank into the project, which was spent on both developing new technologies to make the gene sequencing process more efficient and cost effective, and of course the actual gene mapping (Pennisi 82). Although the expense is extreme, the HGM is popular enough that funding is still available. Countries who were not previously involved are gaining interest in the project. Japan, for example, has a proposed budget of $570 million to invest in genomic research, which is, "considerably more than the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute expects to spend" (Normile et al. 84). The second problem facing scientists is the current lack of computer hardware and software that are powerful enough to effectively use the data that is being gathered. One area of genome research that requires more advanced technology is proteomics, which is the study of protein interactions (for an in-depth explanation of proteomics, visit www.npr.org and listen). "New developments in bioinformatics would enhance the ability of researchers to manipulate, collect, and analyze data more quickly and in new ways" (Pennisi 85). Considering the fact that the number of proteins is predicted to be in the millions, new computers and technologies that can process such large amounts of data efficiently must be developed. New and unplanned uses of the technologies developed from genome research are being found.

Online Newspaper Vs. Print Version -- essays research papers

Newspaper designers have a huge canvas to play with. Their designs can be striking and yet intricate and pack much more impact than a web page; especially because the entire double-page spread is in-your-face in a fraction of a second. Wham, here's the news. The page in the figure is a great example of the possibilities in print: a large, high-resolution map sets the stage for a story about Chile and does double duty as an information graphic for several data nuggets. More data is visualized in smaller graphics around the page. And, of course, there is room for a large amount of text that is set in high-resolution type and nicely integrated with the headlines and graphics in a pleasing over-all layout that allows the eye to move from overview to details in a fraction of a second. The above image does not do justice to the awards book which is printed in super-high resolution on heavy-duty glossy paper. In the book, it is possible to actually read the body text on the page. For online, I had to squeeze the JPEG quality down quite a bit in order to achieve the required 10-second download time for modem users. Another benefit of print! Dimensionality Print design is 2-dimensional, with much attention paid to layout. It is obviously possible for the reader to turn the page, but substantial interplay between different spreads is rare. Typically, each view is a design unit created for a fixed size canvas - often a big canvas when designing newspapers or posters. In contrast, Web design is simultaneously 1-dimensional and N-dimensional. A web page is fundamentally a scrolling experience for the user as opposed to a canvas experience. A small amount of 2-dimensional layout is possible, but not to the extent of creating a pre-planned experience with a fixed spatial relationship between elements. Users often begin scrolling before all elements have been rendered, and different users will scroll the page in different ways throughout their reading experience. Precise placement of elements on a web page goes against the nature of HTML and can only be achieved to an approximation for pages that are able to adjust to different window sizes. Thus, 2-dimensional relationships between page elements are less important than 1-dimensional relationships (what's early on the page; what's later on the page). Navigation The N-dimensional aspect of web design follows fr... ...esign approaches to utilize the strengths of each medium and minimize its weaknesses. Print design is based on letting the eyes walk over the information, selectively looking at information objects and using spatial juxtaposition to make page elements enhance and explain each other. Web design functions by letting the hands move the information (by scrolling or clicking); information relationships are expressed temporally as part of an interaction and user movement. With better hardware, differences in terms of appearance and layout may diminish. At the same time, more powerful software and a better understanding of interactive information objects will increase the differences in terms of interaction and user control. Current web designs are insufficiently interactive and have extremely poor use of multimedia. It is rare to see a web animation that has any goal besides annoying the user. Print design is highly refined, as evidenced by glancing through the recent book of award-winning designs. Web design is impoverished because too many sites strive for the wrong standards of excellence that made sense in the print world but do not make sufficient advances in interactivity.

A Game of Thrones Chapter Four

Eddard The visitors poured through the castle gates in a river of gold and silver and polished steel, three hundred strong, a pride of bannermen and knights, of sworn swords and freeriders. Over their heads a dozen golden banners whipped back and forth in the northern wind, emblazoned with the crowned stag of Baratheon. Ned knew many of the riders. There came Ser Jaime Lannister with hair as bright as beaten gold, and there Sandor Clegane with his terrible burned face. The tall boy beside him could only be the crown prince, and that stunted little man behind them was surely the Imp, Tyrion Lannister. Yet the huge man at the head of the column, flanked by two knights in the snow-white cloaks of the Kingsguard, seemed almost a stranger to Ned . . . until he vaulted off the back of his warhorse with a familiar roar, and crushed him in a bone-crunching hug. â€Å"Ned! Ah, but it is good to see that frozen face of yours.† The king looked him over top to bottom, and laughed. â€Å"You have not changed at all.† Would that Ned had been able to say the same. Fifteen years past, when they had ridden forth to win a throne, the Lord of Storm's End had been clean-shaven, clear-eyed, and muscled like a maiden's fantasy. Six and a half feet tall, he towered over lesser men, and when he donned his armor and the great antlered helmet of his House, he became a veritable giant. He'd had a giant's strength too, his weapon of choice a spiked iron warhammer that Ned could scarcely lift. In those days, the smell of leather and blood had clung to him like perfume. Now it was perfume that clung to him like perfume, and he had a girth to match his height. Ned had last seen the king nine years before during Balon Greyjoy's rebellion, when the stag and the direwolf had joined to end the pretensions of the self-proclaimed King of the IronIslands. Since the night they had stood side by side in Greyjoy's fallen stronghold, where Robert had accepted the rebel lord's surrender and Ned had taken his son Theon as hostage and ward, the king had gained at least eight stone. A beard as coarse and black as iron wire covered his jaw to hide his double chin and the sag of the royal jowls, but nothing could hide his stomach or the dark circles under his eyes. Yet Robert was Ned's king now, and not just a friend, so he said only, â€Å"Your Grace. Winterfell is yours.† By then the others were dismounting as well, and grooms were coming forward for their mounts. Robert's queen, Cersei Lannister, entered on foot with her younger children. The wheelhouse in which they had ridden, a huge double-decked carriage of oiled oak and gilded metal pulled by forty heavy draft horses, was too wide to pass through the castle gate. Ned knelt in the snow to kiss the queen's ring, while Robert embraced Catelyn like a long-lost sister. Then the children had been brought forward, introduced, and approved of by both sides. No sooner had those formalities of greeting been completed than the king had said to his host, â€Å"Take me down to your crypt, Eddard. I would pay my respects.† Ned loved him for that, for remembering her still after all these years. He called for a lantern. No other words were needed. The queen had begun to protest. They had been riding since dawn, everyone was tired and cold, surely they should refresh themselves first. The dead would wait. She had said no more than that; Robert had looked at her, and her twin brother Jaime had taken her quietly by the arm, and she had said no more. They went down to the crypt together, Ned and this king he scarcely recognized. The winding stone steps were narrow. Ned went first with the lantern. â€Å"I was starting to think we would never reach Winterfell,† Robert complained as they descended. â€Å"In the south, the way they talk about my Seven Kingdoms, a man forgets that your part is as big as the other six combined.† â€Å"I trust you enjoyed the journey, Your Grace?† Robert snorted. â€Å"Bogs and forests and fields, and scarcely a decent inn north of the Neck. I've never seen such a vast emptiness. Where are all your people?† â€Å"Likely they were too shy to come out,† Ned jested. He could feel the chill coming up the stairs, a cold breath from deep within the earth. â€Å"Kings are a rare sight in the north.† Robert snorted. â€Å"More likely they were hiding under the snow. Snow, Ned!† The king put one hand on the wall to steady himself as they descended. â€Å"Late summer snows are common enough,† Ned said. â€Å"I hope they did not trouble you. They are usually mild.† â€Å"The Others take your mild snows,† Robert swore. â€Å"What will this place be like in winter? I shudder to think.† â€Å"The winters are hard,† Ned admitted. â€Å"But the Starks will endure. We always have.† â€Å"You need to come south,† Robert told him. â€Å"You need a taste of summer before it flees. In Highgarden there are fields of golden roses that stretch away as far as the eye can see. The fruits are so ripe they explode in your mouth—melons, peaches, fireplums, you've never tasted such sweetness. You'll see, I brought you some. Even at Storm's End, with that good wind off the bay, the days are so hot you can barely move. And you ought to see the towns, Ned! Flowers everywhere, the markets bursting with food, the summerwines so cheap and so good that you can get drunk just breathing the air. Everyone is fat and drunk and rich.† He laughed and slapped his own ample stomach a thump. â€Å"And the girls, Ned!† he exclaimed, his eyes sparkling. â€Å"I swear, women lose all modesty in the heat. They swim naked in the river, right beneath the castle. Even in the streets, it's too damn hot for wool or fur, so they go around in these short gowns, silk if th ey have the silver and cotton if not, but it's all the same when they start sweating and the cloth sticks to their skin, they might as well be naked.† The king laughed happily. Robert Baratheon had always been a man of huge appetites, a man who knew how to take his pleasures. That was not a charge anyone could lay at the door of Eddard Stark. Yet Ned could not help but notice that those pleasures were taking a toll on the king. Robert was breathing heavily by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, his face red in the lantern light as they stepped out into the darkness of the crypt. â€Å"Your Grace,† Ned said respectfully. He swept the lantern in a wide semicircle. Shadows moved and lurched. Flickering light touched the stones underfoot and brushed against a long procession of granite pillars that marched ahead, two by two, into the dark. Between the pillars, the dead sat on their stone thrones against the walls, backs against the sepulchres that contained their mortal remains. â€Å"She is down at the end, with Father and Brandon.† He led the way between the pillars and Robert followed wordlessly, shivering in the subterranean chill. It was always cold down here. Their footsteps rang off the stones and echoed in the vault overhead as they walked among the dead of House Stark. The Lords of Winterfell watched them pass. Their likenesses were carved into the stones that sealed the tombs. In long rows they sat, blind eyes staring out into eternal darkness, while great stone direwolves curled round their feet. The shifting shadows made the stone figures seem to stir as the living passed by. By ancient custom an iron longsword had been laid across the lap of each who had been Lord of Winterfell, to keep the vengeful spirits in their crypts. The oldest had long ago rusted away to nothing, leaving only a few red stains where the metal had rested on stone. Ned wondered if that meant those ghosts were free to roam the castle now. He hoped not. The first Lords of Winterfell had been men hard as the land they ruled. In the centuries before the Dragonlords came over the sea, they had sworn allegiance to no man, styling themselves the Kings in the North. Ned stopped at last and lifted the oil lantern. The crypt continued on into darkness ahead of them, but beyond this point the tombs were empty and unsealed; black holes waiting for their dead, waiting for him and his children. Ned did not like to think on that. â€Å"Here,† he told his king. Robert nodded silently, knelt, and bowed his head. There were three tombs, side by side. Lord Rickard Stark, Ned's father, had a long, stern face. The stonemason had known him well. He sat with quiet dignity, stone fingers holding tight to the sword across his lap, but in life all swords had failed him. In two smaller sepulchres on either side were his children. Brandon had been twenty when he died, strangled by order of the Mad King Aerys Targaryen only a few short days before he was to wed Catelyn Tully of Riverrun. His father had been forced to watch him die. He was the true heir, the eldest, born to rule. Lyanna had only been sixteen, a child-woman of surpassing loveliness. Ned had loved her with all his heart. Robert had loved her even more. She was to have been his bride. â€Å"She was more beautiful than that,† the king said after a silence. His eyes lingered on Lyanna's face, as if he could will her back to life. Finally he rose, made awkward by his weight. â€Å"Ah, damn it, Ned, did you have to bury her in a place like this?† His voice was hoarse with remembered grief. â€Å"She deserved more than darkness . . . â€Å" â€Å"She was a Stark of Winterfell,† Ned said quietly. â€Å"This is her place.† â€Å"She should be on a hill somewhere, under a fruit tree, with the sun and clouds above her and the rain to wash her clean.† â€Å"I was with her when she died,† Ned reminded the king. â€Å"She wanted to come home, to rest beside Brandon and Father.† He could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes. Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his. Ned could recall none of it. â€Å"I bring her flowers when I can,† he said. â€Å"Lyanna was . . . fond of flowers.† The king touched her cheek, his fingers brushing across the rough stone as gently as if it were living flesh. â€Å"I vowed to kill Rhaegar for what he did to her.† â€Å"You did,† Ned reminded him. â€Å"Only once,† Robert said bitterly. They had come together at the ford of the Trident while the battle crashed around them, Robert with his warhammer and his great antlered helm, the Targaryen prince armored all in black. On his breastplate was the three-headed dragon of his House, wrought all in rubies that flashed like fire in the sunlight. The waters of the Trident ran red around the hooves of their destriers as they circled and clashed, again and again, until at last a crushing blow from Robert's hammer stove in the dragon and the chest beneath it. When Ned had finally come on the scene, Rhaegar lay dead in the stream, while men of both armies scrabbled in the swirling waters for rubies knocked free of his armor. â€Å"In my dreams, I kill him every night,† Robert admitted. â€Å"A thousand deaths will still be less than he deserves.† There was nothing Ned could say to that. After a quiet, he said, â€Å"We should return, Your Grace. Your wife will be waiting.† â€Å"The Others take my wife,† Robert muttered sourly, but he started back the way they had come, his footsteps falling heavily. â€Å"And if I hear ‘Your Grace' once more, I'll have your head on a spike. We are more to each other than that.† â€Å"I had not forgotten,† Ned replied quietly. When the king did not answer, he said, â€Å"Tell me about Jon.† Robert shook his head. â€Å"I have never seen a man sicken so quickly. We gave a tourney on my son's name day. If you had seen Jon then, you would have sworn he would live forever. A fortnight later he was dead. The sickness was like a fire in his gut. It burned right through him.† He paused beside a pillar, before the tomb of a long-dead Stark. â€Å"I loved that old man.† â€Å"We both did.† Ned paused a moment. â€Å"Catelyn fears for her sister. How does Lysa bear her grief?† Robert's mouth gave a bitter twist. â€Å"Not well, in truth,† he admitted. â€Å"I think losing Jon has driven the woman mad, Ned. She has taken the boy back to the Eyrie. Against my wishes. I had hoped to foster him with Tywin Lannister at Casterly Rock. Jon had no brothers, no other sons. Was I supposed to leave him to be raised by women?† Ned would sooner entrust a child to a pit viper than to Lord Tywin, but he left his doubts unspoken. Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word. â€Å"The wife has lost the husband,† he said carefully. â€Å"Perhaps the mother feared to lose the son. The boy is very young.† â€Å"Six, and sickly, and Lord of the Eyrie, gods have mercy,† the king swore. â€Å"Lord Tywin had never taken a ward before. Lysa ought to have been honored. The Lannisters are a great and noble House. She refused to even hear of it. Then she left in the dead of night, without so much as a by-your-leave. Cersei was furious.† He sighed deeply. â€Å"The boy is my namesake, did you know that? Robert Arryn. I am sworn to protect him. How can I do that if his mother steals him away?† â€Å"I will take him as ward, if you wish,† Ned said. â€Å"Lysa should consent to that. She and Catelyn were close as girls, and she would be welcome here as well.† â€Å"A generous offer, my friend,† the king said, â€Å"but too late. Lord Tywin has already given his consent. Fostering the boy elsewhere would be a grievous affront to him.† â€Å"I have more concern for my nephew's welfare than I do for Lannister pride,† Ned declared. â€Å"That is because you do not sleep with a Lannister.† Robert laughed, the sound rattling among the tombs and bouncing from the vaulted ceiling. His smile was a flash of white teeth in the thicket of the huge black beard. â€Å"Ah, Ned,† he said, â€Å"you are still too serious.† He put a massive arm around Ned's shoulders. â€Å"I had planned to wait a few days to speak to you, but I see now there's no need for it. Come, walk with me.† They started back down between the pillars. Blind stone eyes seemed to follow them as they passed. The king kept his arm around Ned's shoulder. â€Å"You must have wondered why I finally came north to Winterfell, after so long.† Ned had his suspicions, but he did not give them voice. â€Å"For the joy of my company, surely,† he said lightly. â€Å"And there is the Wall. You need to see it, Your Grace, to walk along its battlements and talk to those who man it. The Night's Watch is a shadow of what it once was. Benjen says—† â€Å"No doubt I will hear what your brother says soon enough,† Robert said. â€Å"The Wall has stood for what, eight thousand years? It can keep a few days more. I have more pressing concerns. These are difficult times. I need good men about me. Men like Jon Arryn. He served as Lord of the Eyrie, as Warden of the East, as the Hand of the King. He will not be easy to replace.† â€Å"His son . . . † Ned began. â€Å"His son will succeed to the Eyrie and all its incomes,† Robert said brusquely. â€Å"No more.† That took Ned by surprise. He stopped, startled, and turned to look at his king. The words came unbidden. â€Å"The Arryns have always been Wardens of the East. The title goes with the domain.† â€Å"Perhaps when he comes of age, the honor can be restored to him,† Robert said. â€Å"I have this year to think of, and next. A six-year-old boy is no war leader, Ned.† â€Å"In peace, the title is only an honor. Let the boy keep it. For his father's sake if not his own. Surely you owe Jon that much for his service.† The king was not pleased. He took his arm from around Ned's shoulders. â€Å"Jon's service was the duty he owed his liege lord. I am not ungrateful, Ned. You of all men ought to know that. But the son is not the father. A mere boy cannot hold the east.† Then his tone softened. â€Å"Enough of this. There is a more important office to discuss, and I would not argue with you.† Robert grasped Ned by the elbow. â€Å"I have need of you, Ned.† â€Å"I am yours to command, Your Grace. Always.† They were words he had to say, and so he said them, apprehensive about what might come next. Robert scarcely seemed to hear him. â€Å"Those years we spent in the Eyrie . . . gods, those were good years. I want you at my side again, Ned. I want you down in King's Landing, not up here at the end of the world where you are no damned use to anybody.† Robert looked off into the darkness, for a moment as melancholy as a Stark. â€Å"I swear to you, sitting a throne is a thousand times harder than winning one. Laws are a tedious business and counting coppers is worse. And the people . . . there is no end of them. I sit on that damnable iron chair and listen to them complain until my mind is numb and my ass is raw. They all want something, money or land or justice. The lies they tell . . . and my lords and ladies are no better. I am surrounded by flatterers and fools. It can drive a man to madness, Ned. Half of them don't dare tell me the truth, and the other half can't find it. There are nights I wish we had lost at the Trident. Ah, no, not truly, but . . . â€Å"I understand,† Ned said softly. Robert looked at him. â€Å"I think you do. If so, you are the only one, my old friend.† He smiled. â€Å"Lord Eddard Stark, I would name you the Hand of the King.† Ned dropped to one knee. The offer did not surprise him; what other reason could Robert have had for coming so far? The Hand of the King was the second-most powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms. He spoke with the king's voice, commanded the king's armies, drafted the king's laws. At times he even sat upon the Iron Throne to dispense king's justice, when the king was absent, or sick, or otherwise indisposed. Robert was offering him a responsibility as large as the realm itself. It was the last thing in the world he wanted. â€Å"Your Grace,† he said. â€Å"I am not worthy of the honor.† Robert groaned with good-humored impatience. â€Å"If I wanted to honor you, I'd let you retire. I am planning to make you run the kingdom and fight the wars while I eat and drink and wench myself into an early grave.† He slapped his gut and grinned. â€Å"You know the saying, about the king and his Hand?† Ned knew the saying. â€Å"What the king dreams,† he said, â€Å"the Hand builds.† â€Å"I bedded a fishmaid once who told me the lowborn have a choicer way to put it. The king eats, they say, and the Hand takes the shit.† He threw back his head and roared his laughter. The echoes rang through the darkness, and all around them the dead of Winterfell seemed to watch with cold and disapproving eyes. Finally the laughter dwindled and stopped. Ned was still on one knee, his eyes upraised. â€Å"Damn it, Ned,† the king complained. â€Å"You might at least humor me with a smile.† â€Å"They say it grows so cold up here in winter that a man's laughter freezes in his throat and chokes him to death,† Ned said evenly. â€Å"Perhaps that is why the Starks have so little humor.† â€Å"Come south with me, and I'll teach you how to laugh again,† the king promised. â€Å"You helped me win this damnable throne, now help me hold it. We were meant to rule together. If Lyanna had lived, we should have been brothers, bound by blood as well as affection. Well, it is not too late. I have a son. You have a daughter. My Joff and your Sansa shall join our houses, as Lyanna and I might once have done.† This offer did surprise him. â€Å"Sansa is only eleven.† Robert waved an impatient hand. â€Å"Old enough for betrothal. The marriage can wait a few years.† The king smiled. â€Å"Now stand up and say yes, curse you.† â€Å"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, Your Grace,† Ned answered. He hesitated. â€Å"These honors are all so unexpected. May I have some time to consider? I need to tell my wife . . . â€Å" â€Å"Yes, yes, of course, tell Catelyn, sleep on it if you must.† The king reached down, clasped Ned by the hand, and pulled him roughly to his feet. â€Å"Just don't keep me waiting too long. I am not the most patient of men.† For a moment Eddard Stark was filled with a terrible sense of foreboding. This was his place, here in the north. He looked at the stone figures all around them, breathed deep in the chill silence of the crypt. He could feel the eyes of the dead. They were all listening, he knew. And winter was coming.

French Canadians, and English Canadians Essay

Throughout the 20th century, the relations between the French and the English in Canada had a significant negative impact on Canadian history. The defining moments that changed French-English relations in Canada were the WWI conscription crisis, the creation and the governing of the Union Nationale Party in the 1930s, and Quebec’s Quite Revolution in the 1960s. The WWI conscription crisis considerably weakened the relations between the French and the English in Canada during WWI. By 1917, the casualty rates at the front in France and Flanders exceeded 109 4891 soldiers. As the number of volunteer soldiers was only about 64 3392 men, the lack of reinforcements forced Prime Minister Robert Borden to make conscription or compulsory military service a law for Canadians to ensure victory in war. However, many French Canadians opposed forcing men to enlist in the armed forces because they did not want to get involved in a European war and felt no obligation to defend France who had abandoned Quebec to defend its culture and language on its own in 1759. On the other hand, the English felt an obligation to defend Britain and could not comprehend why Quebec had only provided twenty percent3 of the volunteers in proportion to its population to defend France. As a result, the social unity of the French and the English in the country was threatened. The vote for conscription was split fifty-fifty4 along linguistic lines and the tragic outcome of this crisis was that civil war almost broke out in Canada when the French rioted in Montreal against fighting a foreign war. The demonstrations and protests in Quebec against conscription and the mistrust of the English who felt that a vote against conscription was a vote for Germany’s victory proved that conscription was disastrous to French-English social relations because of national unity had been destroyed for only 45 0005 recruited soldiers. Similarly, the long-term effects of the WWI conscription crisis caused extensive damage to French-English unity and proved to be a disaster in politics for the Conservative Party. Because Robert Borden and the Conservative Party passed laws such as the Military Voters Act and the War Time Elections Act to make conscription a law during WWI by giving votes to soldiers and women, the French turned against the Conservative Party because they saw them as the representatives of the English. These long-term political disasters that resulted from conscription crisis continued to demonstrate the weakened  French and English relations to this day since Quebec had no Conservative Party premier for the past hundred and fifteen years.6 Because of the violent social conflicts such as riots and bitter political catastrophes such as the French mistrust of the Conservative Party, the WWI conscription crisis strained French-English relations and created bitter feelings that would affect the peacetime. Another defining moment in Canadian history that greatly weakened French English relations was the creation and the government of the Union Nationale Party in Quebec in the 1930s. During the Great Depression, the agricultural industry’s prices plummeted, forced over fifty percent7 of Quebec’s population to migrate to cities and search for work. In 1936, Maurice Duplessis from the newly formed Union Nationale Party became Quebec’s Premier and took seventy-two of the ninety seats8 in the government, with his promises to help French rural society and improve labor rights for the French factory workers who were struggling in the cities. However, during its time in power, the Duplessis government resisted change and encouraged the preservation of French values and traditions by adopting nationalistic policies and continuing to allow the English to dominate the majority of Quebec’s business. The Duplessis government ruled in an almost totalitarian manner to protect the French culture and managed to hold power of Quebec until 1959. They vigorously protected French values and beliefs during the Great Depression, but they failed to protect the French and English business relations that quickly weakened. They promises of the Union Nationale to provide protection for French workers with better labor laws such as higher minimum wages, workers’ compensation, and pensions quickly raised English suspicion and mistrust toward the French because these capitalists owned and ran most of the corporations in Quebec. The fact that the Union Nationale saw the English corporations as exploiting the poor and wanted certain labor rights for French workers did not strengthen the economical relations between the English began to distrust the French as they saw them nationalizing and beginning to pose threats to their business profits. In addiction to that, the English and French were further divided by the social conflicts caused by the governing policies of the Union Nationale. This occurred because the Union Nationale government encouraged the Catholic  Church to control education and other social programs in Quebec, obstructed to federal encroachment on provincial rights during WWI, and preserved traditional values and beliefs of the French such as the nobility of the plough to prevent them from being assimilated into the English culture. This destabilized French English political, economical and predominantly social affairs in Canada because the French withdrew into a defensive shell and viewed any English intrusion and change to Quebec as harmful to the preservation of their culture. Therefore, the governing policies of the Union Nationale in the 1930s created greater French nationalism and the desire for separation from the rest of Canada to preserve their culture and weakened the relations between French and English Canadians by planting the seeds for another major conflict that would arrive suddenly and once again disrupt the nation’s unity. Indeed, the arrival of the next conflict that split the French and the English in Canada did arrive suddenly between 1950-66 and was marked as Quebec’s Quite Revolution, which was disastrous for the nation’s unity. When Maurice Duplessis of the Union Nationale Party died in 1959, Jean Lesage became Quebec’s new Liberal Premier, winning fifty-one and a half percent9 of the popular vote. This ended Quebec’s isolationist policy and started Maitres chez nous or Masters in our own house policy, which served as a strategic base for the upcoming changes in Quebec. The Quiet Revolution was a period of non-violent steady reform, modernization in Quebec, and the redefinition of the role of French Canadians who wanted equality with the English within Confederation. However, the end of this peaceful movement came suddenly in 1966 with the creation of nationalist groups such as the Parti Revolution who adopted separatist ideologies and took control of the province of Quebec that was desperately seeking equality. Although the goal of the Quiet Revolution was to make French equivalent within the Confederation, its own ideology failed to strengthen the social and economical relations with the English Canadians. The new Liberal government refused to accept federal funding to modernize education, improve the labor code for French workers, and nationalize hydro-electric facilities in Quebec. As a result, the provincial taxes on individuals and corporations in Quebec became the third highest10 in Canada. Consequently, bitter social and  economical conflicts occurred between the English federalists and Quebec’s business owners who became infuriated with the French because they refused federal funding in order to achieve greater power and therefore equality within Confederation. Furthermore, even greater political and social conflicts between the French Canadians and English Canadians were result of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution. These major arguments were initiated in 1964 when the Liberal Party forced the Federal government to grant Quebec the right to opt out of thirty11 of the country’s cost sharing programs with full compensation. The English in Canada as well as the federal government were greatly angered since only the province of Quebec was given this special status and their political differences with the French widened because the French did not see their special status as privilege, but rather as a way to gain more control and improve their position within Canada. Therefore, Quebec’s Quiet Revolution was a catastrophic failure for French-English unity in Canada as it caused conflicts between federalists and nationalists in Quebec and in the federal government and failed to make any two provinces equal within Confederation. Throughout the twentieth century it was evident that the French and the English engaged in severe social, political, and economical conflicts that prevented Canada from merging as a country. The WWI conscription crisis in 1917 bitterly split the nation at a time when national unity was important to ensure victory in the war as it made the French feel like a minority and caused great mistrust of the English who viewed them as being unpatriotic to the country. The government of the Union Nationale during the 1930s caused even stronger breakdowns to French-English relations as it build a defensive shell around Quebec and isolated the French from the rest of Canada in an attempt to protect their traditions. Subsequently, Quebec’s Quit Revolution from 1960-66 failed to bring an end to these conflicts as it caused greater English mistrust and resulted in the formation of militant groups in Quebec who believed that only a violent revolution would finally allow them to achieve total independence and equality within Confederation.