Blue Sky

The shrill buzz of the cicada breaks through the stagnant air of summer. The sun's heat pelted down onto the serrated leaves, creating a small canopy of shade and offers little relief of the sweltering heat and the stuffy air. Wisps of clouds disperse throughout the cerulean sky. Above, pairs of birds flutter, circling the landscape.

The brittle grass shows patches of yellow, the tips becoming arid as the season progresses. The pale dusty dirt crumbles when disturbed and the much wanted occasional wind would stir up a dust cloud. The leaves of trees and other flora were riddled with holes, victims of the appetites of ants, snails and other insects. Some flowers are in full bloom, unraveling their vibrant colours, and others, their glory days long past, drop their sweet scented petals onto the the dirt ground.

Bees and wasps buzz around, visiting flower and plant, carrying their powdery cargo. Dragonflies and damselflies zip across ponds and lakes. Butterflies flutter across the scenery, visiting flowers and giving the landscape a splash of color. Ladybugs and other beetles scurry around the bottom the plant stalks as ants leave their colonies in search of food. Snails stick to the underside of leaves, to prevent themselves from drying out.

Birds chirp in the distance, fluffing out their feathers and taking towards the clouds. Their calls ring around, asking and replying to each other from tree to tree. They perch on the branches, their wings comfortably tucked behind them, their coloured feathers peak out from the foliage. Squirrels dart out from the trees, onto the open field below, searching for nuts, they quickly dash around.

Shielding the eyes form the blistering sun one lays on the ground under the endless sky. Sweat beads collect on foreheads, slowly dripping down the face and automatically wiped off. In sticky clothes people lounge around, unwilling to budge under the glare of the sun searching in vain for a cooler spot, hoping for a god-sent cloud to block the sun or a gently breeze to take away the heat.

Under the watchful eye of the blue sky, life is in full bloom.

And it starts with spring ...

The rain drops fall delicately onto the earth like the tears of angels. Above, the sun is taking a leave from daylight and the clouds are his curtains. As he sleeps, the grey sky weeps and cleanses the world. 

Does the rain signify the end or just another start? 

Visiting an old home brings back nostalgic memories. Leaving a home takes memories forward. Every smell of damp earth and fallen leaves makes an imprint upon the sands of the mind. Taking a walk through an old pathway of worn cobblestone, the best perfume is the one of home. Like in a forest, where every bush, flower and tree have their own unique scent. They make themselves a home in our hearts and come out to the surface when remembered. 

Buying a new house up north, my family is moving after almost 10 years of living in our current home. Right now, we live a cozy townhouse in the middle of many, making up a small clutter of units and suites. 50 years strong, the red bricks of the houses are now a pale faded shade, some places chipped. They are small but sturdy like a colony of ants. The red bricks contrasts with the black of the asphalt shingles. Some parts are peeling off, but it still keeps the homes safe and warm nonetheless. 

Lining the pathways of our own community, are small bushes and narrow clearings of grass. The sweet smell of the flowers and berries are calming and soothing. The green is a relaxing sight to the eyes and out there is a forest of our own. 

A few streets away is a park with a small ravine running across the fields. Deer and other small animals scurry under the bushes and live alongside the humans among the shadows. Every time we walk through the forest, the sun is cast and shining across the roads.

Each block of townhouses are covered and hidden behind a myriad of trees and bushes. A window in our house looks out upon a small square garden contained within a stone block. In the middle of the garden is a petite baby tree. It's trunk is slim with delicate branches reaching out to the sky. It has been there since we moved in. Season through seasons, it has grown, slowly, but surely. We've watched it lose its leaves only to grow them back every year. With each coat gone, it grows a bit taller.

After all, it starts with spring. A new leaf. A stronger tree. 

This community is our summer, autumn and winter. The brightness of the initial joy, the turning of a new page, and the melancholy reminiscence. And the future holds our spring to our new home. Leaving behind every sight and wonder, but never forgetting. They are brought with us, wherever we go to come back one day. And when they do, the waves of memories wash over us like a comforting blanket of all the years past.

The end of a chapter. The start of another. 

After a harsh cold winter, it will always start again with spring.

Euthanasia

Euthanasia or assisted suicide is the act of killing a patient suffering an incurable disease painlessly. Many people are against the idea of killing a person, whether someone wishes to die or not as it is regarded as a type of murder and is considered inhumane. Euthanasia is illegal in most countries and when it does occur, it raises a wave of controversy. However, although one should help a human to survive and live, at the end, people should have the choice to decide whether they want to end their own lives.

People say that once a person dies, one will never know whether the patient will survive or a miracle recovery would happen. However, in most countries that did legalize euthanasia, it is reserved exclusively for terminally ill people. Many people would argue that were euthanasia be legalized, doctors would abuse that power to free spaces in a hospital or to use less funds. However, just because euthanasia is legalized, the process for a patient to be approved to undergo euthanasia is also long and complicated and doctors won't have the permission to carry out the action without sufficient paperwork. This paperwork can supervise abuses of euthanasia

Passive euthanasia, where a patient's life is ended without the use of drugs, usually by being taken off of life support of being denied food, is already widespread in the world. In a study in 2012, as many as 57 thousand people die every year in Britain through passive euthanasia. Euthanasia in Britain is illegal, so the government won't be able to track the abuse. In contrast, a report in 1991 in the Netherlands, a decade before euthanasia was legalized there, 0.8 percent of euthanasia procedures were performed without the patient's consent. In 2005, another study found that this number dropped to 0.4 percent.

People who are denied euthanasia often claim their life is dull and sheer torture. They often state that their dignity and privacy are lost. Tony Nicklinson was, a 58 year-old-man who suffered from locked-in syndrome, where the patient in conscious and is capable of sound, but they are paralyzed from neck down and are unable to speak. He can only communicate by blinking and a few head movements. He can only eat if someone feeds him and he has to be washed and dressed by caregivers. He described his life as a living torture. In 2010 and 2012 he bid to die, but he was rejected. In the end, he starved himself and died within a week.

Euthanasia is performed by veterinarians. People bring their dying and suffering pets to be "put to sleep" The pets are injected in a vein with pentobarbital with shuts down the functionality of the brain and stops the heart. The animal immediately looses consciousness so they don't feel any pain and the whole process, in most cases takes about 5 seconds. If animals are euthanized because of chronic diseases or severe illnesses, why can't humans.

The Hippocratic Oath, "First do no harm" is used by doctors as a code of conduct. This means that doctor's can't do anything to harm a patient's chance of survival. The Hippocratic Oath was a piece of text written 2000 years ago by Hippocrates and was summed up into the maxim. However, today, with modern advancements in medicine, most of the points in the oath are not viable anymore, so why are we still clinging onto the Hippocratic Oath? Besides, put under a different perspective, it could also mean "don't hurt a patient by letting them suffer." Through a different light, "harm" can have a different meaning. By keeping a patient in anguish and letting them suffer by keeping them alive, we are also violating the maxim by causing them pain and harm.

Although assisted suicide does present new problems, it also allows suffering victims to alleviate their pain. Much of the public already supports euthanasia. Currently, 70 percent of Americans support "ending a patient's life by some painless mean" in Gallup's poll. Euthanasia is not an immoral action. Through assisted suicide, patients are able to experience death with dignity.

Should we ban scientists from using animals in their experiments?

26 million animals are used for scientific research every year. 26 million. None of them survive to see a day when they aren't trapped in a white lab room. Scientists use them to test out new drugs, medicine, or cosmetics before putting them on store shelves. But what is actually happening during the testing? These animals are put through a lot of pain and being discarded like trash. Even though by testing on animals, humans can be more safe and protected agaisnt diseases, animals should not be used for scientific research.

First of all, testing results are not always accurate when using animals. Animals and humans are both complex organisms and they are both quite different from each other. Of course, we both bear basic similarities, but animal cells differ so much from human cells. Primates are commonly used because of their striking similarity to humans, but even though we were said to have evolved from them, their cells are still different. One drug that seems to be safe when used on a monkey could have drastic side effects on a human. Even humans experience different side effects from each other.

For example, in 1999, when a group of scientists created the Vioxx drug (treats osteoarthritis) it was safe when they tested it on lab mice. In fact, it even strengthened the mice's hearts. So why was it taken down from the market a few years later? Vioxx started to cause sudden cardiac arrests and it induced over 27000 heart attacks. Something that had such a positive effect on mice went on to kill so many lives.

Using animals for scientific research is also inhumane and unethical. The testing conditions in the lab are very cruel. The animals are being force fed to reach a certain size, and they are shoved into cages when not needed. Also, PETA, an animal rights corporation, visited animal labs and discovered that the animals are usually awake when they are injected with harmful substances. The scientists don't usually give them anesthesia to help with the pain which means that the unfortunate animal can feel everything during the procedure. Animals have feelings too, like humans. Just because they cannot speak, or communicate like us, they still have a soul and a right to live. By forcing them into confining cages, is it any better than forcing a person against their will?

Many religious beliefs state that humans should treat other living things with respect. A proverb from the bible states: "A righteous man regards the life of his beasts." Even if the animals are providing the scientists with experiments that can potentially cure a disease, the animals shouldn't be put through so much pain.

Instead of using animals, the technology is now so advanced that there are other ways to yield accurate lab results. In vitro testing is where the scientists place a cell on a petri-dish and then studied carefully. By using the cell, they can add the product to it and observe the results in the cell level. This way, the results can actually be more accurate since it can be tested on a human cell instead of an animal cell. Not only do they get more accurate results, it is also much much cheaper. Using animals for science experiments costs around $32 000 while In vitro testing costs $11 000.

Using animals for scientific research can benefit mankind by finding cures for diseases. However, it is a cruel solution and the results are never 100%, which means the pain the animals go through might as well be for nothing. There are other ways to find cures for sicknesses and other ways to test out cosmetics. Of course, we should do what we can to keep the human race flourishing, but at what cost are we willing to pay?