Overview Of Strategic Sourcing Initiative Management Essay

Overview Of Strategic Sourcing Initiative Management Essay 1. Gillet and the 7 Step Methodology The Gillette Company launched a Strategic Sourcing Initiative to create savings to invest in company brands, fund research and development. They employed a formal 7-step strategic sourcing methodology to competive source and evaluate suppliers on cost, quality and services provided. Enabled by a strong commitment from Senior Management and cross-functional global teams, this strategy produced savings and improved the quality of the products and services procured.   Step 1 Develop the Category Profile. Teams are formed to develop a comprehensive understanding of their category profile. They must understand what we buy, who we buy it from, what are the product/service characteristics/specifications, what is the current cost, and who and how the spend is managed internally. They must understand market trends and economics that impact these purchases as well as our current negotiation leverage with suppliers. This comprehensive understanding of the Category also enables to break down spend into subcategories, components, services, transportation costs, administrative costs or other divisions to be either be consolidated with one supplier or divided among several suppliers. Indeed, this sourcing step facilitates procurement managers in setting supplier diversity targets and strategies. Step 2 Generate the Supplier Portfolio. Teams must include minority suppliers as well as non-traditional suppliers. They must look at companies that provide total outsourcing capabilities and suppliers who are best in class in specialized spend categories. Then through a rigorous process of researching suppliers, evaluating and prioritizing capabilities, the list of suppliers is converted to a manageable list. This step reduces the workload of reviewing RFPs and negotiating with suppliers later in the strategic sourcing process. Step 3 Develop sourcing strategies. The sourcing team develops a supplier survey for both incumbent and potential alternative suppliers. The survey helps evaluate the suppliers capabilities to serve as well as their costs to serve. At this time, the team will also verify spend information with the data that incumbent suppliers may have from their sales systems. Category should be assesed in a Category Position Matrix. This process aids teams in developing their sourcing strategies. Teams must evaluate the complexity of the market, the competitiveness, the ability to switch suppliers, and the number of suppliers in the market. They must also position their Category in terms of business impact, how much total spend and how does this category impact core business operations. In doing so, teams will find their category falls into one or two of the following boxes: Leverage Category, Strategic Category, Non-critical Category or Bottleneck Category. From this positioning matrix, teams can determine which of the sourcing strategies are most appropriate.   Typically, teams who find themselves in the Leverage or Non-critical Categories will use the left side of the Sourcing Gemstone: Volume Concentration, Best Price Evaluation or Global Sourcing. Teams who confront more complex markets, may want to consider Product Specification Improvements, Joint Process Improvements or Relationship Restructuring strategies. In a Volume Concentration strategy, teams will often look to reduce cost by consolidating volumes from different facilities, regions, or business units. This strategy encourages suppliers to lower their costs in anticipation of greater volumes.   Teams may also consider a Best Price Evaluation strategy, where they select various suppliers who have the best offering for each segment of the spend. Best Price Evaluation allows yousegment and optimize your spend. Step 4- Select implementation path. The combination of the first three steps provides important input to developing a sourcing strategy and applying it in this step. The sourcing team has two sets of constituencies: 1) the people who use the things that are bought, and 2) the executives who manage overall costs. The people who use the spend category accept cost reductions as long as they a) start in another department; b) dont change suppliers; and c) dont create any complaints from the supply base that might affect any part of the relationship. For users, all change is bad. For executives, cost and service competitiveness is a key objective, but they too are users of various corporate services, so they often have a split personality between executive pursuit of cost improvement and being users who resist change. In order to mobilize users and executives to support the category sourcing strategy, it is necessary to communicate benefits and overcome potential risks. Step 5- Negotiate and select suppliers.   Preparing a request for proposal and preparing and soliciting bids. This will define the basis for competition to the prequalified suppliers. It includes product or service specifications, delivery and service requirements, evaluation criteria, pricing structure and financial terms and conditions. Also a communication plan will be executed that will attract maximum supplier interest. The RFP is then sent out to all suppliers and they are given enough time to respond completely, with follow-up messages sent to encourage supplier response and field questions. The sourcing team applies its evaluation criteria to the supplier responses. If more information beyond the RFP response is needed, its requested. The negotiation process is conducted first with a larger set of suppliers then narrowed to a few finalists, if it is done manually. Step 6 Implement agreements. Finally, the winning suppliers are notified and invited to participate in implementing recommendations. Implementation plans vary depending on the degree of supplier switches. For new suppliers, a communication plan has to be developed that manages the transition from old to new supplier at every point in the companys process that is touched by the spend category. Step 7- Continuos improvement. It is particularly important to measure the new supplier closely in the first several weeks of performance. Being able to demonstrate performance equal to or better than the former incumbent one will be particularly important during that sensitive time. Gillette Companys Strategic Sourcing Initiative has not only produced significant cost savings, but has enabled and advanced Gillettes Supplier Diversity Initiative. 2. Nestlà © and its mix of purchasing strategies To leverage Nestlà ©s purchasing volume as a strength in a business environment where the impact and importance on many spend categories is increasing, it requires planning and strategy determination, It is necessary to understand that supply markets are not and will not always be in surplus or excess, so the assurance of long term competitive supply through purchasing planning and strategy implementation is key to the realisation of Nestlà ©s growth and profitability objectives. The evaluation of different purchasing strategies can only take place once a detailed spend analysis has been completed. Strategic options must take into account: business sector objectives; total cost of ownership; supply market and its evolution; appropriate purchasing approach (e-Auctions, tenders, negotiations); value creation opportunities; emphasis on price management through competitive bidding; key stakeholders involvement and their support. Rationalisation and Standardisation This strategy is based on working with suppliers to have fewer and standardised specifications. Specification rationalisation will not only allow higher volume price leverage but also expose efficiencies throughout the supply chain, resulting in lower costs. Subcontracting/Outsourcing A key strategy in sourcing products and services is Subcontracting/Outsourcing. The responsibility of subcontracting activities rests with Technical and Production. Normally a Strategic Buyer will lead this process and manage crossfunctional teams to monitor the commercial relationship as well as to ensure optimum terms and conditions for Nestlà ©. Subcontractors are required to adhere to Nestlà ©s Corporate Business Principles. Cross-Functional Teamwork Purchasing must continue to work within and expand the use of cross-functional teams. Depending on the scope of the project, such teams may also involve suppliers and third-party expertise. Nestlà © acknowledges and encourages the role suppliers can play in innovation, creativity and the identification of new business proposals, which will improve and add value and growth to both companies. Nestlà © also considers suppliers as an important information source and relies on their objectivity and expertise. As the relationship progresses, it may well evolve into that of a preferred supplier. Purchasing wil retain the overall responsibility for the relationship and interface with suppliers. Supplier Management To better manage the supplier base and reduce transactional costs, Nestlà © may request suppliers to: offer their products or services via e-Requisitioning (catalogues), accept payment by P-card, deliver materials through a vendor managed inventory (VMI) or consignment stock initiative and collaborate using e-Supply Chain tools. Approval/Accreditation The extent or degree of approval/accre ditation as a supplier to Nestlà © depends on the sophistication or sensitivity of the material, product or service, the suppliers reputation and record with Nestlà ©, as well as their ability to offer competitive terms and conditions. Quality Management To achieve Nestlà ©s objective of offering consumers high quality nutritional products, they expect suppliers to guarantee the quality of the goods they supply or the service they provide. Nestlà ©s goal is to be able to rely on our suppliers competence and ability to implement jointly their quality programmes. Suppliers must be fully aware of Nestlà ©s quality and safety standards, understand their quality policy; share their objectives and work together to achieve them. In particular they consider their suppliers responsibility to ensure the traceability of all materials used in their own production or process. Supplier Audit Suppliers of raw and packaging materials must be incorporated into a formal assessment covering audits and inspectionsof their quality records. Formal audits of the suppliers quality assurance system and technical capabilities must be carried out. Suppliers need to be open and responsive to Nestlà ©s requirements and provide all necessary information on the composition and manufacture of their products. E-Procurement Nestlà © encourages and promotes the use of electronic tools to optimise the value chain to lower costs, create efficiencies, drive product availability and enhance customer service.   Purchasing evaluates and promotes the use of e-Procurement tools both within the company and within the supplier base. Benchmarking With the trend towards closer relationship with suppliers, benchmarking becomes an essential tool for measuring performance and highlighting opportunities. The concept of benchmarking should be seen as a continuous process of evaluation to ensure that results are quantifiable and actionable; it must be supported by a direct management commitment and should be clearly defined in terms of what is to be compared. 3. Procter Gamble sourcing networks and expressive competition Procter Gamble put into practice an approach to build sourcing networks, called expressive competition. It is a vision that looks past lowest-price reverse auctions and combinatorial packagebidding toward a highly expressive business relationship with suppliers. It enables suppliers to make electronicoffers that express rich forms of capabilities and efficiencies. As the buyer, PG also uses an expressive languageto state constraints and preferences. The detailed expressions of supply and demand are brought together viaan advanced optimization engine to decide the optimal allocation of business to the suppliers. In the process, PGs suppliers benefited from the winwinapproach: expressive competition matched demand to the most efficient means of production- rather thansqueezing suppliers profit margins- and removed the exposure risks in making offers. Beyond direct monetarysavings, the benefits included the re-design of supply networks with quantitative understanding of the trade-offs. The relationships between companies that purchase materials, goods, and services and their suppliers can be viewed as a network, because many companies both purchase and supply. Traditionally, the buyer configures the network and then asks offers from suppliers. This approach produces suboptimal results because it ignores suppliers alternative capabilities. With the new process this will be reversed by first collecting offers and then using optimization to configure the optimal network based on those offers. CombineNets (software currently used) approach is particularly relevant in transportation sourcing. By considering the most efficient routings that carriers can offer, both individually and collectively, it develops more efficient networks than the current networks. Buyers can construct supply chains in light of supplier capabilities as expressed in their offers. Companies can now make decisions on large baskets of items to be procured, rather than in a number of submarkets, naturally improving the allocation decisions. PGs use of expressive competition enables it to manage and exploit complexity and rich data to obtain the best value. In short, PG is now faster, more rigorous, and better able to leverage its purchasing experts than it was. It obtains greater savings with every analysis than it could before it adopted this process. 4. HONDA Global and Local Sourcing Traditionally, the standard metrics used by Japanese automakers in choosing suppliers wee quality, cost, delivery and technology. In the case of Honda, three other factors drive their spurchasing strategy. They depend on suppliers for more than 80% of components in their cars. They procure components from an estimated 400 tier one suppliers in Japan. Globally, Hondas supplier total number is close to 1,000 including more than 600 in North America. The main reason for this large number of North American suppliers: the distance between Hondas main assembly plants in North America is sufficiently long to make logistics a critical cost issue for suppliers wishing to serve all six Honda plants from a single location. Three of four Honda vehicles sold today are global models. Where possible, they prefer to use global suppliers forthese global cars. Honda defines group suppliers as affiliated companies in which it holds a larger than 20% equity stake or which depend on them for 70% or more of their sales; or the other way around: which Honda turns to for more than 70% of purchases of a particular system or component. That is the case of Denso Corp., Toyotas leading group supplier, is also a Honda group supplier as it manufactures an estimated 95% share of their heater requirements in Japan and 60% of air-conditioners. There seems to be no set rule on whether Honda doubles or triples sources or what even constitutes double or triple sourcing. For most components, Honda relies on multiple suppliers. But on a model base, it tends to single source. Hondas core suppliers have largely followed the OEM into North America and Asia. Keihin, Hondas main group supplier of car electronics, has set up 16 plants outside Japan including four in the US, while Stanley Electric has lighting plants in London, OH, and Battle Creek, MI. In general, there is a feeling that Honda depends more on non-Japanese suppliers at its overseas plant. Meanwhile, they continue to make steady progress in expanding local content at plants outside Japan. 5. Hewlett-Packard Total Cost Management Strategies HP recognized that it could leverage advances in Total Cost Management strategies, processes and technology to improve its overall financial performance. Over a five-year period the company put together an impressive record of cost savings, transforming its Indirect Procurement function into a strategic asset for the company. The significant cost reduction results came from an evolution and maturation of HPs Total Cost Management also called Spend Management, strategies, processes, and technologies as the company itself evolved. Like many companies, HP started with the traditional spend consolidation and price negotiations strategies of the late 90s. With the Compaq merger, HP had both a challenge and opportunity to advance its Total Cost Management strategies. Going forward, the role of HPs Indirect Procurement has evolved to a broader perspective as a strategic asset in driving down the total cost of procurement to achieve world-class cost structures. HP knew that companies like itself were leveraging new spend management tools to drive procurement decisions and wanted to take advantage of the new selling channel to increase revenue. With a strategy of being an early supporter of the Ariba Supplier Network and working to make it easy for customers to integrate and do business with HP, it has been able to generate $1 billion in revenue, making it the largest IT supplier to Total Cost Management customers using the Ariba Supplier Network. They realized that increased growth would be very hard if the company did not restructure to take advantage of its economy of scale. They decided that indirect procurement was a good candidate for centralization, as the existing decentralized model with fragmented local organizations provided little leverage. Indirect Procurement was given responsibility for managing nonproduction spend categories: information technology, human resources, marketing, travel, real estate and workplace solutions, finance, and labor. Its scope was to manage the strategic, tactical, and operational aspects of procurement, including global and regional sourcing, local buying and order fulfillment, and deployment of e-procurement programs. They deployed a standardized purchasing platform, Ariba, to reduce cost of transactions and develop and implement new policies, practices, and standards. Later, they were able to identify the â€Å"low-hanging fruit† in a centralized model and redefined their procurement areas and strategies as shown in the figures below. New Structure 6. International Clothing Retailers main sourcing strategies Marks and Spencer (United Kingdom) Is one of the UKs leading retailers of clothing, foods, homeware and financial services, serving 10 million customers a week in over 350 UK stores. They rationalized its supplier base, with efforts for sourcing and the accelaration of the design to store lead time. MS now manages a complex international supply chain involving 650 factories worldwide. Their priority is to maintain the quality of fabrics and clothes wherever they are manufactured. To support this objective, MS has established quality audit teams in Morocco and Sri Lanka, and will introduce them over the coming year in China and Turkey and all their main centres of manufacturing. Hennes and Maurizt (Sweden) HM is an expansive Swedish company. Over the past three years, HM has increased the number of stores by nearly 40 per cent.   HM has 21 production offices: ten in Europe, ten in Asia and one in Africa. Around 700 people work at the production offices, by far the majority of whom are drawn from the local population. They are responsible for contracts with the approximatly 750 suppliers (primarily Bangladesh, China, Turkey) that manufacture HMs products. The production offices ensure that the buyer places his order with the right supplier, that the goods are produced at the right price and with good quality and controls that production takes place under good working conditions. Ensuring the safety and quality of the goods largely takes place at the production offices and is the result of extensive testing, including checking for shrinkage, twisting, colourfastness and dry rubbing. In HM lead times vary from two to three weeks up to six months, depending on the nature of the goods. In recent years HM has reduced the average lead time by 15-20 per cent through developments in the buying process. Inditex (Spain) The Inditex Group comprises mainly companies engaging in the manufacturing and marketing of textiles and footwear, managed on a centralised basis by applying policies and strategies at group level. A significant proportion of the production takes place in the factories belonging to Inditex, which fundamentally carry out the manufacture of the garments containing a greater element of fashion and through external suppliers. In the case of in-house production -between 40 and 50 percent of the total- Inditex directly carries out the supply of fabrics, the marking and cutting and the final finishing of the garments, subcontracting the garment-making stage to specialised companies located mainly in the north-west of the Iberian peninsula. As regards external suppliers, a high percentage of which are European, in many cases they are also supplied by Inditex with the fabric and other elements needed for the production of the garments. For Inditex, time is the main factor to be considered, a bove and beyond production costs. Mix of sourcing: external fabrics sourcing 60%; internal fabrics sourcing 40%; in-house manufacturing 50%; external manufacturing 50%. Gap (Usa) Gap is a leading international specialty retailer offering clothing, accessories and personal care products. It operates with more than 4,200 stores worldwide. Gap has world headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area, product development offices in New York City and distribution operations and offices coordinating sourcing activities around the globe. Design and merchandising teams are working more closely from the beginning of the product development cycle, resulting in a more efficient process and, over time, faster speed to market. Gap will be building more strategic relationships with suppliers, including sharing more planning and forecasting information, to further leverage sourcing capabilities. Located around the globe, employees in Gaps sourcing and logistics group, along with buying agents, draw up production schedules and place orders with approved third-party factories in the more than 50 countries that produce goods. Third-party manufacturers ship merchandise to Gap distr ibution centers, which sort and redistribute it to the stores. Gap has a list of countries approved for product sourcing, located in five main areas: Africa/MiddleEast, Europe/Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Americas. CA (Holland) CA was founded in 1841. Over 100 Stylists work together with 360 buyers. The European headoffice is located in the north of Brussels. It has 1.200 suppliers, monitored by Socam. The name Socam reflects the concept â€Å"Service Organisation for Compliance Audit Management† and its purpose is to oversee and monitor responsible business standards in merchandise buying on behalf of the CA retail companies, which operate in Europe. An audit is performed in a total of 40 countries. Because the Far East is a significant supply market and because many of the key issues tend to be more prevalent in that part of the world, Socam also operates through a subsidiary company Socam Services Pte. Ltd located in Singapore. Socam has full and independent authority to monitor the standards which are defined by the CA Code of Conduct for the Supply Merchandise. To sum up, retailers prefer to choose the cheapest sources worldwide in order to maximize gross margin. Or, in order to decrease time to market, retailers may choose sourcing alternatives that may not bring the cost advantage of a cheaper supplier but do offer the advantage of diminishing logistics costs and lost sales. 7. IKEA selectivity strategy Under increasing pressures to reduce costs, companies have shifted, and continue to shift, sourcing from local suppliers to low cost country-based suppliers. Furthermore, the lower prices offered by low-cost country suppliers rarely translate into significantly lower total costs of ownership. Despite the popularity of global sourcing across both service and manufacturing industries, research into global sourcing is still playing catch-up and remains poorly conceptualized, for example in comparison with research on buyer-supplier relationships or industrial networks. The trend towards global sourcing is likely to fundamentally change the dynamics of buyer-supplier relationships and networks, but little research to date has examined the implications of this trend. Affordability through low cost is the core of the companys business idea. For IKEA, growth is a core and explicit objective.A key component in the low cost strategy at IKEA has been to own only a small proportion of the means of production. Therefore, the products that are sold in IKEA stores are sourced from a global network of suppliers. Well functioning and close relationships with suppliers is an important but sometimes seemingly ignored driver of the success of IKEA. In the mid- 1990s, IKEA had more than 2,000 suppliers, but in 2009 its supply base had been reduced to less than 1,400 despite increasing sales volumes. The background to the supply base reduction during recent years is the increasing need to secure and build capacity for continued growth. In 2008, IKEA sourced furniture from 54 different countriesm through 30 purchasing offices distributed over strategic locations all over the world. In 2009, IKEA had around 1400 suppliers. Almost two-thirds of its products (64%) were sourced from European countries; the largest single supply market was China with a 22% share of the supply, and the second largest supply market was Poland with a 16% share. Coordination and communication with suppliers was channelled through trading offices situated strategically around the world. Without close collaboration with suppliers, the balancing act between stock costs and avoiding the risk of stock-outs would not be possible. In addition, IKEA seems to conce ntrate on as few suppliers and as few supply markets as possible. This selectivity means that IKEA is effective in balancing its market choices; concentrating its sourcing activities in certain geographic areas by committing to and investing in some markets, whilst having to decide to forego opportunities in others For IKEA, cost reductions were the principal driver towards, initially, international purchasing and, later, global sourcing. The search for lower costs in new sourcing markets creates pressure on the supplier network of IKEA to source internationally or to develop global sourcing through world-wide coordination and integration of sourcing operations. A main reason for IKEA to preserve relationship with swedishs suppliers is to secure capacity if, or when, problems were met in the Chinese sourcing market. 8. Conclusions The Strategic Sourcing methodology is used to identify, evaluate, select and implement sourcing alternatives for specific sourcing groups.   It emphasizes the process for evaluating, selecting and aligning with suppliers to achieve improvements and support strategic objectives. It focuses on total costs and not just on the purchase price. This process enables the company to obtain a good understanding of its requirements, mapping the existing supply market and develop a plan for short andlong-term objectives. Sourcing strategies should be reviewed and updated periodically by supply managers. Suppliers should be invited to be part of the process depending on the class of category or market dynamics. Strategic sourcing results should be tracked in terms of performance metrics and cost savings. The process should be regularly reviewed to incorporate new sourcing tools and approaches, new supplier market opportunities and developments in benchmarking and best practices. Supply managers must collaborate internally with a multifunctional team on new supply opportunities. Collaboration demonstrates the value of supply management. Besides the traditional competitive approach to sourcing, there are more alternatives depending on the category or business trends. Some could be, collaborating with suppliers to reduce complexity and build productivity into their process, or create joint process improvements that reduce the cost of doing business, or set up a partnership where a company invests in supplier operations to guarantee access to supply, new technology or process improvements. Another option could be strategic alliances which decrease the total cost of ownership, increase quality, have a faster response and enable new product development with supplier involvement, among other benefits. Or even, e-procurement which can decrease the unit cost as well as the cost of transactions and processes. Overall, not only a right sourcing strategy or model of management is enough; it is also a matter of being aligned with the companys key obkectives and to have the right methodology, the right metrics and the right team of people.

Good And Bad Qualities Of Animation

Good And Bad Qualities Of Animation Aesthetic refers to beauty or to the study of the principles of beauty, especially in art. By studying and comparing the aesthetic qualities of the early and current animated films, we can learn the good and bad qualities of animation in the two different eras. We will also compare the similarities and differences using examples of techniques, treatments and technology used in different animated films from cel animation to computer generated imagery animation. Form and shape design of the character for animation The animated films in the past and the present both follow one rule, which is to keep the design of the characters simple and easy for animation. Thomas, B. (1991) states that, during the twenties, there most studios were persistently using the Circle Formula and the Rubber-hose Method as it was the quickest way to draw a character for their productions. Animators need not worry about the angles when animating as the drawing were mostly circles and lines. The arms and legs moved like rubber hoses as there were no elbows, knees and wrists on the character. Therefore using the Circle Formula and the Rubber-hose methods allowed animators to draw each frame faster and they saved a lot of time and money for the studios. By mid-thirties, aesthetic of the character evolved. Freddy Moore added the squash and stretch technique and changed Mickey s body to a pear like shape to enhance the emotion of the character. (Thomas, B. 1991) It has changes how the aesthetic of the film look from that pe riod onward. Bennett, D. (2009) discusses that appealing design enable the audience to identify with and grow to like the character. When designing a character, it is best to think of a personality for it. Having a distinct shape and silhouette allows the audience to recognize the characters immediately. This rule can be further illustrated by comparing Figure 1 and Figure 2, where the shapes for both examples are kept simple, despite the former being an older production than the latter. But if were to compare the different, the Circle formula and Rubber-hose tends to lose interest for the audience as the character were built with the same template. It is also hard for them to differentiate the characters compared to Figure 2, which uses different simple shapes and form to show the different. Through the years from early twenties till now, we have better knowledge of animating as more animators are trained in anatomy drawing for animation in their colleges or university. Furthermore, new drawing methods, for example the Disney style , the Manga style where Japanese exaggerated the eyes (Fig 3) to show emotions distinctly, are devised to overcome the limited animation methods back in the twenties. Despite all these, animators still keep their characters simple to minimize the complexity of animating them. Training for better animators Quoting Walt Disney (1956 cited Thomas, B. 1991), To do the things I wanted to do, I need better artists. A cartoonist is not the same as an artist. A cartoonist knows the shortcuts and tricks how to do things in a hurry. His work might have been comic, but it was convincing. Back in the 1920s to 1930s, animations were done by mostly by cartoonist who did drawing for local newspaper comics strips. Thomas, F. and Johnston, O. (1981) state in 1923, animated figures move as little as possible. It is as simple as lifting up and down the legs means walking and twice the speed means running. In order to improve the cartoonists skill to prepare them for his studio, Walt Disney sent his staff to school back in 1931 to learn life drawing and the study of animals movement. Colour psychology and action analysis were also taught to the class (Thomas, B. 1991). In the documentary The Pixar Story (2007), Disney founded CalArts in 1961. During that period, students were trained by Disney s nine ol d men the Disney s style character animation. The style has become an influence of present day animation. A lot of studios follow the Disney way of animating. Presently, most artists have already attended colleges and universities in order to learn the art of animation. Colour theories and acting classes are conducted to enable them to understand and study how things move and behave in real environment. This leads to more realistic and better looking animation as compared to the past. The beauty of sound in animation Figure 4: In Felix the Cat: Felix dopes it out, dialogues between characters were delivered in bubbles or text box. Figure 5: Felix the Cat uses question mark to express his emotion and dotted lines to indicate the direction he is looking at. In the infancy of the animation industry, animated films suffered with the absence of sound. Quoting Thomas, B. (1991), during the silent film era, dialogue was expressed either in balloon above the character or a full screen titles. Felix the Cat: Felix Dopes It Out (1925) the animated film clearly shows the example stated by Thomas, B. This distracts the flow of the animation. Characters use a bright light bulb over their head if they thought of something great or a question mark if they are puzzled. Felix the cat in figure 5 shows a good example of weak personality. By having these qualities in animation makes the character weak with no reasoning power. Compared to the current animation, characters are more convincing and feel real when they could feel emotion and learn to reason. Dialogue also helps to establish the characters as well. For example, Warner bros Bugs Bunny demonstrates good characteristic in delivering the voice across to the audience and the proper uses of sound e ffects for comedy. In Chariots of Fur (1994), a lot of funny sound effects were used to enhance the comedy, like example the part where Coyote falls from high ground. Sound has definitely changes the aesthetic feel of the animated films now. Creating realistic character animation Basic figures were always anthropomorphic animals or caricatured human characters during the 1920 to 1930. Human characters for animation were presented in very basic and simple shapes. As stated by Thomas, B., (1991) human character animation was not convincing in the past. The human characters were moving in a jerky and unrealistic motion. During the early stages of animation, animators would create stylized animals for their cartoon as the audience prefer it more than unrealistic human characters. Animated human form characters were never seen before until Walt Disney attempted to in his first feature animation, Snow White, in 1937. Walt Disney (cited Thomas, B. 1991) observed that animating animals was easy as the audience wasn t familiar with how the animals move, so as long as they could give an appearance of the animal motion, the audience would be convinced. But animating humans was a different concept. Everyone knows how human moves and it was difficult to produce a convincing animation if we were unable to get the motion correct. To solve this, Disney hired a live actor to re-enact the parts of the animated characters. Then the animators could study and analyze the film and use it as a reference for their drawings. (Thomas, B. 1991) This method has proven useful and it is why modern animators now are taking video references and using them as a guide for their animation production. Similarly, live action references were used in Beauty and the Beast (1991), where the performance actress was dressed in Belle s costume for the act. Grids were drawn in the room to guide animators regarding the distance of the movement or action. The footage was then printed out frame by frame to give an idea of movement for the animators to study, not copy. (Thomas, B. 1991) Walt Disney (Cited Thomas 1991) stated that it is impossible for animators to visualize everything without studying and analyzing references. He further illustrated using an act of rising from a chair as an example. In the past, the character will simply rise in an upright position and walk away. He emphasised that studying live action films allows animators to see how a human body gets up from a chair by leaning forward and using his arms to push into standing position. Using live action as a guide helps the animation but he did warn animators not to fully copy the reference as it may produce unnatural animation. In recent times, as animated features are moving towards realism, live video references and researches have become absolutely necessary for artists to refer to. Frank Thomas (Cited Thomas 1991) quotes that No matter how good they are, actors can seldom give you what you want. Animation since Snow White (1937) till now, like example Toy Story (1995), Spirited Away (2001) and Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children (2005), uses video reference to create realistic look and feel to their films. Bad influence of animation in the past and now Animations were simple and were often based on violence and bad influence. For example in Steamboat Willie (1928), Mickey mouse abuses animals by using them as a musical instrument. Mickey mouse smokes and drinks beer in The Gallopin Gaucho (1928). Now animated films follow a strict movie rating which filters out violence and bad influence to prevent young children from exposing them. Beowulf (2007) is rated PG-13 due to the intense sequences of violence and some sexual material and nudity. Steamboat Willie (1928), The Gallopin Gaucho (1928) Colour and staging Before colour was introduced back in 1932 for Disney s Flower and Trees (1932), the characters were often outlined in black against light background to make it stand out. Thomas, B. (1991) stated that Disney faced problems with the characters blended into the background when they first used colour in their film. They solved the issue by giving the characters lively colours while graying out the backgrounds. Riley, A. (cited Thomas, B. 1991), a Disney Colour-stylist, pointed out that gray is in everything we see. Using overtones of gray on backgrounds will make the scene look natural and allows the character to be readable. In Beauty and the Beast (1991), different colours on the characters clothing represent different mood in the film. In the present animated films, they still follow the way of staging and use of colours to bring the characters out against the background. Figure 12. shows one of the background used in The Princess and the Frog (2009). Shadows were used to guide your eyes to the lit area where the performance of the animation is played at. The Princess and the Frog (2009) But for some 3D animation productions, blur are added to the background to give the illusion of depth when the characters are placed in front of the camera. This method is another way to separate the character from the scene. Director Unkrich (2010) loves to use the field of depth to guide the audiences eyes to the direction he wants them to focus on in his movie, Toy Story 3 (2010) as discussed in the 133 issues 3D world magazine (2010, Pg38). Fusion of technology with arts Technology has helped a lot in animation since the early stages of Walt Disney s production. Thomas, B. points out that (1991) Walt Disney always pushed his studio to be the best company that create realistic animated films in the industry. In order to compete with live action producers, he needed to make sure that his camera used to capture the animation cels was able to dolly in and out of a scene. Therefore the multiplane camera was created to be used in his first feature animated film, Snow White, 1937. As part of the preparation for Snow White feature film, Disney set up an animation effect department to research and experiment with colour gels, camera diffusion and different types of filming technique. The Old Mill (1937), a Silly Symphony, was a testing ground for their effect animators to try on new animated techniques. Effects like lightning, rain, ripples in water, clouds, sun ray, firefly glow were tested and eventually applied to their first animated feature film. (Thomas , B. 1991) In the modern anime movie, Akira (1988), director Katsuhiro Otomo used a camera technique to show depth of the scene by moving and overlapping different background cels on top of each other at different speeds. This gave the audience an illusion of depth on a moving vehicle. In his film, he also requested some parts of the scene to have holographic effect but it is impossible to do that using a movie camera. So what director of photography Katsuji Misawa (1988) did was what he called a counterfeit holograph. He photographed the character with transmitted light which passed through the photograph, creating a doubled image of the character. The use of multiplane during the 1940s and the techniques and methods used in Akira (1988), share common similarity on creating and produce animated films using technology with arts. The main purpose of this is to give realistic aesthetic to the audience. Akira (1988) Walt Disney s Beauty and the Beast (1991), has great influence in the industry by its blending of traditional animation and computer generated image. Disney s CPS software is used to combine the traditional animated characters onto computer-generated background. The CAPS software is able to simulate the old Disney s multiplane camera effect by moving the layers of images towards and away from the camera like the ballroom dancing scene in the film. (Thomas, B. 1991) It was another breakthrough in the use of new technology since The old Mill (1937) and Snow White (1937). As animation starts to mature, new technology were developed and started to fuse together with art to form a new medium, computer generated imagery, which gave birth to Toy Story (1995). Beauty and the Beast (1991) But some studios in Japan still prefer the traditional way of animating. In Studio Ghibli, a lot of Director Miyazaki s works still done using water colours and Cel. It is true that parts of the animation use digital paintings to speed up the work since Princess Mononoke (1997) and it have been a standard for his studio s pipeline. But before the production of Ponyo (2008), Miyazaki (2009 cite by Jones, D., 2009) shut down computer graphic section and focuses fully on traditional animation. Ponyo (2008) is a good example of using traditional hand-drawn animation for the whole film without technology. Though technology helps to improve the aesthetic qualities to the animated film now, some studio still prefer the olden look and feel of traditional medium. Research and development contribution to the aesthetic qualities of animation Research and development are important since the past till now. A lot of money is poured in to make animated films as realistic as possible. Disney invested seventy thousands in 1937 for multiplane camera to make the camera works like live action camera.(Thomas, B. 1991) Same as today, more research and development departments are invested to create photorealistic look and feel to the films, for example, Final Fantasy: Spirit Within (2001) and Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children (2005). The influence of technologies used in animated films has further aspirated the creation of great animated films like Toy Story (1995), first 3d computer generated image feature film, Tekkon kinkreet (2006), for using 2D matte painting baked on 3D background environment. Tekkon kinkreet (2006) In Butler and Joschko s (2009) paper points out that 3D technology has slowly replace the traditional 2D method of animating, but animators still carry the animation fundamental, such as squash and stretch, timing, anticipation, follow-through and weight, used in traditional 2D animation to computer generated imagery 3D animation. More and more animators begin to create a more realistic human motion and photorealistic aesthetics appeal thanks to the potential that 3D technology can provide. Like John Lasseter (1998) insists that computer, same as pencil or clay, is just another medium used to create animated films. Aesthetic in Story point of view Story telling in the early cartoons did not have any plots. Most of the animated films were made up of a series of unfunny gags. Huemer, D. (1957 cited Thomas, B. 1991) recalled that only three animators worked on a Mutt and Jeff animated cartoon. One of the animators will suggest a theme and the rest of the animators will animate to it for few weeks. Once they finished the shots, they will look at each other animation and tried to hook up them with whatever shot they ended with. This resulted in story not flowing well in the whole film and some of them make no sense at all. Same gags were often reused to save cost and time thinking of new ideas which made the audiences bored of seeing the same things on the screen. Story telling now compared to the past has a great different. Now in the present, stories are properly planned and storyboards are created to make sure the whole story flow. Changes made to the story are rectified during the storyboard stage and animation will only start after everything is ironed out during the pre-production stage. Studios in the western, like example Pixar, Dreamworks animation and Blue Sky studio, all follows this industry pipeline. But in Japan, Studio Ghibli has their way of producing story. In the interview report by Mes, T. (2002) stated that director Miyazaki started his Spirited Away (2001) production while the storyboards are still developing. Storyboards were drawn by him only and he will discuss with his team regarding the script of the film. Unlike the western approach, Miyazaki s way tends to be risky as he himself also not sure where the story will lead to. But Miyazaki said in the making of Spirited Away documentary (2001) that this is his workflow and he will stick to it. Conclusion Animation has been around for more than a hundred years, from simple flat 2D cartoons to 3D computer generated animated films. The aesthetics in animation has matured and revolutionized the way of creating animated films. Audiences expectation gets higher each year and when people s perception of cartoons grows, so does the quality of the animated film. Budget also plays a big part in determine the aesthetics qualities of the animated films. With higher budget allows the production house to produce a higher quality film and allows new methods and technologies to be researched and developed. This will contribute greatly to the growth of the animation industry. Till now most elements and techniques that were used in the past are still hold on to dearly by many studios and animators.

The Effects of Technology on Students Essay -- Education Teaching

The Effects of Technology on Students Change is constant. Though one may not be able to see the change, one can look back through the course of a year or maybe even a few months and see the change. Technology has transformed with our culture. There are many benefits for students with the new advancements of technology. Teachers have seen many of these benefits with the influence of technology on their students. Many students find a sense of accomplishment when working with technology. Students are now more willing to write and work on computational skills (Estey). Then students find these tasks appealing and are able to achieve more. Another area that technology has impacted is the expansion of the learning environment. It allows students access to primary source material they could not otherwise see, information they could not otherwise find, places they could not otherwise go, and different opportunities for collaboration and team learning they otherwise could not have (Miller 44). Students who have disabilities or transportation problems benefit from this technology. Students are able to do research from their home rather than going to the library. Pages of information can be available to students from across the nation with just a few clicks of the mouse. Students in a Chicago suburban elementary school recently used technology to explore the history of Ice Age animals in Illinois. Using the Internet, they â€Å"traveled† to the Illinois Sate Museum (200 miles away) and the Brookfield Zoo (10 miles away) to gather information and talk with experts via two-way video. The students constructed an electronic database to organize and analyze their information and shared their findings with students outside ... ...e should use these gifts because in the Bible, I Peter 4:5 reads, â€Å"Each on should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully, administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.† Works Cited Miller, Steven E. â€Å"Technology: what’s it good for?† Learning and Leading with Technology 28 (2001): 42-5. Estey, Carolyn. â€Å"Technology and Education Reform: Technical Research Report.† 2001 U.S. Department of Education. 10 November 2002 http://www.ed.gov/pubs/SER/Technology/ch.9.html â€Å"Networked Classrooms of the Future: An Economic Perspective.† March 2001. http://www.cnets.iste.org. 24 November 2002.

Politics and its affect on the olympics :: essays research papers

Politics is the art or science of government or governing, especially the governing of a political entity, such as a nation, and the administration and control of its internal and external affairs. The Olympic Games is an event held every 4 years, which includes a variety of sport activities in which different countries compete against one another. â€Å"Sport is frequently a tool of diplomacy. By sending delegations of athletes abroad, states can establish a first basis for diplomatic relations or can more effectively maintain such relations† (Espy 3). One might think that politics and the Olympics have nothing to do with each other, but in fact they do have a lot in common. How did politics affect the Olympic Games in 1936, 1968 and 1972?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1934, the death of President Hindenburg of Germany removed the last remaining obstacle for Adolf Hitler to assume power. Soon thereafter, he declared himself President and Fuehrer, which means â€Å"supreme leader†. That was just the beginning of what would almost 12 years of Jewish persecution in Germany, mainly because of Hitler’s hatred towards the Jews. It is difficult to doubt that Hitler genuinely feared and hated Jews. His whole existence was driven by an obsessive loathing of them (Hart-Davis 14). In 1935, the U.S. decided to attend the ‘36 Berlin games, even though the United States knew how Hitler was persecuting the Jews. By July 1933, at least 27,000 people had been placed in what Hitler liked to call â€Å"detention camps† (Hart-Davis 16). In early 1932 at an IOC meeting in Barcelona, the committee decided to grant Germany the right to the 1936 Olympic Games, which allowed Germany to restore their athletic reputation that they lost because of the outbreak of World War I. All over the world, there was an outcry to boycott or at least change the location of the ‘36 Olympics. The IOC’s first response was that they had granted Germany the Olympic site before the Nazis’ came to power. All over Germany before the Olympic Games were signs that read Juden Unerwunscht, or â€Å"Jews not wanted.† â€Å"The racial discrimination- so obvious and deliberate- was more than some foreign sports organizations could stomach. Apart from being offensi ve to normal human beings, the Nazi attitude was also diametrically opposed to the principle of free competition on which the Olympics were supposed to based† (Hart Davis 62). More than anywhere else, action against what was happening in Germany mounted more quickly in the United States, especially in New York, where there were almost 2 million Jews living (Hart Davis 62).

Environmental Economic Impact of Pollution in the Chesapeake Bay Essay

The Chesapeake Bay is the nation’s largest estuary with six major tributaries, the James, the Potomac, the Susquehanna, the Patuxent, the York, and the Rappahannock Rivers, feeding into the bay from various locations in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia (Chemical Contaminants in the Chesapeake Bay – Workshop Discussion 1). These areas depend on the Bay as both an environmental and an economic resource. Throughout the last 15 years the Chesapeake Bay has suffered from elevated levels of pollution. Nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater treatment plants, farmland, air pollution, and development all lead to reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, which harm fish, crabs, oysters and underwater grasses (Key Commission Issues 1). There are other types of pollution in the bay such as toxic chemicals, but because nutrient pollution is the most significant and most widespread in the Bay its effects are the most harmful to fisheries. Ni trogen and phosphorous fuel algal blooms which cloud the water and block sunlight from reaching underwater grass beds that provide food and habitat for waterfowl, juvenile fish, blue crabs, and other species (Blankenship 11-12). Algae plays a vital role in the food chain by providing food for small fish and oysters. However, when there is an overabundance of algae it dies, sinks to the bottom of the Bay, and decomposes in such a manner that depletes the oxygen levels of the Bay (11). The reduced oxygen levels in the Bay reduce the carrying capacity of the environment and these â€Å"dead areas† sometimes kill off species that can not migrate to other areas of the Bay, such as oysters (11). Increased abundance of algal blooms also led to the overabundance of harmful and toxic algae species and microbes such as the microbe Pfiesteria, which was responsible in 1997 for eating fish alive and making dozens of people sick (12). The heightened awareness of diseases that can be cont racted through consumption of contaminated fish also has an economic impact. Therefore, the excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorous have fueled an overabundance of algal blooms, which has reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, affecting many species within the bay and ultimately the industries that rely on these species. The signing of the 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement marked the first joint vent... ...able: http://www.virginia-beach.va.us/cityhall/planning/cbay.html (4 Nov. 1999). â€Å"Fish Health in the Chesapeake Bay: †¦Estimate of Seafood History Losses.† Available: http://www.mdsg.umd.edu/fish-health/pfiesteria/pfeconomics/sld005.html. (22 Nov. 1999). Glibert, Patricia M. and Daniel E. Terlizzi. â€Å"Nutrients, Phytoplankton, and Pfiesteria In the Chesapeake Bay.† Available: http://www.arec.umd.edu/policy/Pfiesteria/terlizzi/terlizzi.htm (22 Nov. 1999). â€Å"Impacts of Diseases and †¦ase Resistant Oysters† Available: http://biology.uroregon.edu/classes/bi130/webprojects/15/oyster.html (22 Nov. 1999). â€Å"Key Commission Issues† Available: http://www2.ari.net/cbc/old/cbc_issu.htm (4 Nov. 1999). Lipske, Michael. â€Å"Getting to Know You† National Wildlife, v33. (1995): 24-29. Parker, Doug. â€Å"The Economic Costs of Implementing the Maryland Water Quality Improvement Act of 1998.† Available: http://www.arec.umd.edu/policy/Pfiesteria/parker/parkertext.html (22 Nov. 1999). Santopierro, George D., and Leonard Shabman. â€Å"Can Privatization Be Inefficient?: The Case of the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Fishery.† Journal of Economic Issues, v26 n2 (June 1992): 407-415.

Lewy Body Dementia

Non-preventable and Non-reversible: Lewy Body Dementia On April 10th 2010, my dad informed me that my grandmother had passed away. She was 90-years-old, and although she may have lived a long life, the last eight or so years of her life were very rough. The official reason she passed away was because of Lewy Body Dementia. This degenerative disease, meaning it is not reversible, is thought to have sprouted from an infection she had in her kidneys in 2002.She lived at home for a while after her kidney disease was found and treated, but was moved to an assisted living center in 2007 because of occasional hallucinations, and family was unable to stay with her at her home. As time progressed, her dementia got worse. She slowly started having hallucinations more frequently, became very forgetful, and eventually was unable to perform any tasks on her own. â€Å"Dementia is a loss of brain function that occurs with certain diseases. It affects memory, thinking, language, judgment, and beha vior,† stated by Google Health. Mayoclinic. om suggests that â€Å"in Lewy body dementia, abnormal round structures — called Lewy bodies — develop in regions of your brain involved in thinking and movement. †Although the specific cause of dementia is unknown, specialists believe that it relates to Alzheimer’s Disease, and Parkinson’s Disease. Evidence of these two diseases has been seen in Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) The cause may not be known, but there are many symptoms that can be easily noticed without difficult tests, such as detailed hallucinations, trembling hands, delusions, sleep difficulties, and more. A clinical diagnosis of LBD can be probable or possible based on different symptom combinations,â€Å" discusses Lbda. org, the Lewy Body Dementia Association website. A probable diagnosis consists of dementia plus two or more core features, or dementia plus a single core feature and one or more suggestive features. A possible diagnosis is dementia plus one core feature, or dementia and one or more suggestive features.Core features are changing cognition with variations of attention or alertness, very detailed hallucinations, and unconsciously having Parkinson’s Disease movements. A suggestive feature includes REM sleep behavior disorder, sensitivity to neuroleptics (a drug used for calming), and low dopamine transporter uptake in the brains basal ganglia, which connects to main parts of the brain like the cerebral cortex and thalamus. LBD cannot be cured, it can only be slowed down. Since there is no cure, doctors can only treat individual symptoms.They use medications for Alzheimer’s Disease to increase the levels of neurotransmitters to help with cognition, Parkinson’s Disease, for muscular issues, but these can increase hallucinations and delusions. Also, doctors may use an antipsychotic medication, which is a neuroleptic, and many LBD patients are severely sensitive to these. Some simple therapy can also be used, such as removing clutter and background noise from the environment, and breaking tasks into simpler steps which will help them focus.Also, how a caregiver responds to a person with LBD is crucial. They should not quiz the person, or question them, they should just validate any concerns, which will usually get rid of the issue at hand for the moment. Lewy Body Dementia is not preventable, but there are certain risks that make it more likely for one to have it when they are older, such as being over 60, being male, and having history of dementia in the family. In conclusion, LBD is an issue that has an effect 15-35% of all dementias, virtualmedicalcentre. com confirms.I have realized that I will probably be diagnosed with this when I am older, because my grandma, and great-grandma on my dads side both had this, and my great-grandma on my moms side is getting the beginning signs of LBD. Because of research, we can understand why certain things happen to us, an d how they happen.Works Cited â€Å"Dementia. † Google Health. Web. 30 Oct. 2010. . Mayo Clinic Staff. â€Å"Lewy Body Dementia – MayoClinic. com. † Mayo Clinic Medical Information and Tools for Healthy Living – MayoClinic. com. 17 Sept. 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2010. . Welcome to the Lewy Body Dementia Association. Web. 31 Oct. 2010. .

Euthanasia Case Essay

Let’s start off by defining the word euthanasia so that this paper is clear and then we can get in to why it can be passive or active. Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma (dictionary.com). Euthanasia, also known as assisted suicide and more loosely termed being mercy killing, basically means to take a deliberate action with the express intention of ending a life to relieve intractable suffering. Some interpret euthanasia as the practice of ending life in a painless manner. Many disagree with this interpretation, because it needs to include a reference to intractable suffering. Euthanasia is illegal. Now that we know what euthanasia is we can breakdown the two procedural classification of euthanasia (medicalnewstoday.com).†Passive euthanasia† is usually defined as withdrawing medical treatment with the deliberate intention of causing the patient’s death. For example, if a patient requires kidney dialysis to survive, and the doctors disconnect the dialysis machine, the patient will presumably die fairly soon. Perhaps the classic example of passive euthanasia is a â€Å"do not resuscitate order†. Normally if a patient has a heart attack or similar sudden interruption in life functions, medical staff will attempt to revive them. If they make no such effort but simply stand and watch as the patient dies, this is passive euthanasia. â€Å"Active euthanasia† is taking specific steps to cause the patient’s death, such as injecting the patient with poison. In practice, this is usually an overdose of pain-killers or sleeping pills. In other words, the difference between â€Å"active† and â€Å"passive† is that in active euthanasia, something is done to end the patient’s life; in passive euthanasia, something is not done that would have preserved the patient’s life. An important idea behind this distinction is that in â€Å"passive euthanasia† the doctors are not actively killing anyone; they are simply not saving him. You would surely not be prosecuted for homicide. Thus, proponents of euthanasia say that while we can debate whether active euthanasia should be legal, there can be no debate about passive euthanasia: You cannot prosecute someone for failing to save a life (pregnantpause.org). Euthanasia has been a very controversial and emotive topic for a long time (medicalnewstoday.com). The beliefs that I have on euthanasia is that is right and it is wrong at the same time. I feel that asking someone to play God is not the way to go. Active euthanasia is just a way for someone to take the easy way out. I understand that they are hurting and are in pain but that’s why the medical field has many different types of pain medicines to keep the patient comfortable enough to deal with everyday life. I think that if a doctor agrees with giving his patient a lethal dose of medicines to end their life is wrong and that then becomes assisted suicide and that they should not have been a doctor because they have violated their oath to protect and heal patients and keep them alive. Whose place is it to decide if one lives or one dies? No one here on earth, I feel like the person that is requesting this type of method to end their life is committing suicide and you are not supposed to take your own life those are my religious beliefs. Another religious belief is that God will not put more on you than you can bear, which means this is all about the endurance you have to preserve life until it is time for you to die a natural life. The other reason why I feel that it is kind of wrong to have a passive euthanasia is because you should not give up on life, you should try all the ways to survive that you can except in the situation of being brain dead or being a vegetable. But then I feel that it is that person right to decide do not resuscitate because that is there right they have that medical right to decide if they do not want to be helped and hooked up on machines just to live. If I ever get to that point I want my family and the doctors to do all that they can do to keep me alive unless in the event like I stated earlier which is brain dead or in a vegetable state. But those are just my beliefs and I cannot change the way others think or how they dictate their lives, everyone has their free will to decide about their life when it comes to passive euthanasia. Assisted dying violates the sanctity of human life speaking from a Baptist person. I agree with that because I am a Baptist and I am a Christian and that is how we were taught was not to kill yourself because you are supposed to die a natural death no matter what the situation is. That means you are allowing God to do His job and that is to letting Him decide when it is time for your life to end, no one can do that for you. Even if you allow yourself not to want to be attached to machines or get resituated you are still dying a natural life. Right to die is just that the right to die but when I say it I mean a right to die of natural causes, not by the hand of another person or by a high dosage of pills to end your life. I understand that if you have a do not resuscitate then that is your choice and I support that choice because you either or going to die or you will pull through which gives that a 50/50 chance. But you are still having your request met by not being resuscitated. so I think that it okay to die a natural life like I have stated before but to have a euthanasia I do not agree with because it is not your time to go, it is the time that you would prefer to leave the earth not when you are meant to leave. Patient suffering at end of life, I hate that people has to suffer but it is a part of life everyone will have their ups and downs in life and unfortunately pain and suffering is life. But the medical field has expanded so far that they are easy to solve the pain or I should say make it easier for patient to be much more comfortable in their time of need where they will not suffer as much as they normally would. I agree that it is good that it is a law against euthanasia, because it does help prevent abuse and protect others. Slippery slope to legalize murder is something that should not be tolerated. Especially with regard to taking life, slippery slope arguments have long been a feature of the ethical landscape, used to question the moral permissibility of all kinds of acts (procon.org)†¦ In my opinion it is giving people a reason to want to die only because they consent to it because they have less than a certain time to live. No one knows the day and time that they are going to die unless they commit suicide and still if they do that that they do not know the time they can only assume how long it will take to die, that is just like the doctors giving patients less than a week to survive and they live and extra month so euthanasia is nothing positive as well as the slippery slope to be legalized. If terminating life is a benefit, the reasoning goes, why should euthanasia be limited only to those who can give consent? Why need we ask for consent (procon.org)? If the slippery slope to legalize murder is so right why does it cost for the insurance company to pay for it and why should they even be in the hospital using up space that someone else that needs and wants a chance at life could be at. The people that want to kill themselves should just go ahead and do it at home and save everyone the time and money it cost to get euthanasia. Not trying to be rude about it. Hippocratic Oath and prohibition of killing the much-quoted reference to ‘do no harm’ is also in need of explanation. Does not doing harm mean that we should prolong a life that the patient sees as a painful burden? Surely, the ‘harm’ in this instance is done when we prolong the life, and ‘doing no harm’ means that we should help the patient die (procon.org)? Surely not, we should not kill someone because they are in pain we should do our best to make sure that patient is as comfortable as possible and there is plenty of medicine out there that can do the job of making people comfortable instead of killing them. Like I said previously that if God wanted them to die then he would make them die of natural causes not because of euthanasia, which is not the way to doing things in my eyes. You are causing more pain on them by trying to end their life because you do not know if the way they die will be a pain free death with the euthanasia it could choke them or it could cause them tremendous pain before they die nothing on earth is pain free. Doctors are made to save lives not take them, that is their oath and that is what they should do is save the patient and keep them as pain free as possible to make their life a lot more comfortable. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect’†¦ In forswearing the giving of poison when asked for it, the Hippocratic physician rejects the view that the patient’s choice for death can make killing him right (procon.org). Government involvement in end of life decision, when do we withhold which therapies and allow nature to take its course? When are we, through our own indecision and fears of mortality, allowing wondrous medical methods to perversely prolong the dying rather than the living (procon.org)? I think that we as medical people should prolong life as long as we can because the health care business is about taking care of the ill, elderly, and people with disabilities. Once the medicine starts not to work any longer then it is up to that person and family to request that they no longer get any medication (treatment) and allow them to die a natural life even if that means them dying in pain. That is the only time that I feel that a person should stop trying to prolong life is when nothing else is working for them and they are ready to suffer the pain to die a natural death. Euthanasia is definitely not the answer. However, I think that it sad that the government has to make decisions on infants and elderly people with disabilities that cannot stand up for themselves and make the decision in a way they are just kind of treated like a number, or who they think will live the longest will get to live and the people that cannot make it to live they are wrote off. Palliative (end of life) care, every appropriate palliative option available must be discussed with the patient and, if reasonable, tried before a request for assisted death can be accepted (pro con.org)†¦ And even then when everything is done that needs to be done physicians cannot assist in suicide or euthanasia they can only cute off the treatment and let them die a natural life. There are very few hospice facilities, very little in the way of organized hospice activity, and few specialists in palliative care, although some efforts are now under way to try and jump-start the hospice movement in that country (procon.org). They have very limited options once they get to this point of life. Healthcare spending implications, considering the way we finance healthcare in the United States, it would be hard to make a case that there is a financial imperative compelling us to adopt physician-assisted suicide in an effort to save money so that others could benefit (procon.org).. In so many ways that sounds so harsh but the reality of it is true. If it was legal for physicians to assist in suicide then they are saying that more people could be helped due to the fact that they are killing people off to save more money for others to be taken care of. In a way they are saying that they are saving money from people with terminally ill disease will make it better for the healthier person, which is just my opinion and what I am getting from the information. Savings to governments could become a consideration. Drugs for assisted suicide cost about $35 to $45, making them far less expensive than providing medical care. This could fill the void from cutbacks for treatment and care with the ‘treatment’ of death (procon.org). I did not know that it cost as less as $35 to kill someone off, that is sad. But it will save a lot of money in the end. However, I am still against physician assisted suicide and euthanasia. Social groups at risk of abuse, those who died by physician-assisted suicide were more likely to be college graduates, more likely to be Asian, somewhat younger, more likely to be divorced, and more likely to have cancer or amytrophic lateral sclerosis†¦ the reason for more people with cancer wanting assisted suicide or euthanasia is because they know that there is ultimately no cure for this disease and they feel like they want to skip out on all the pain before it gets that bad. Moreover, although 2.6 percent of Oregonians are African American, no African American patients have chosen assisted suicide (procon.org). Since I am African American I see that those of my ethnicity have the same views as I do about physician assisted suicide and euthanasia in Oregon where it is legal for this to happen. It just shows that just because you live in a state that allow these things to happen does not mean that everyone believes in going out (dying) like that, they as well want to get the best treatment they can get until there is no more treatment that can get done. But even if they wanted to get it done they have to say it and have it in writing a certain amount of time within a certain amount of days for any of this to happen. Religious concerns, some wonder if it is right for you to commit suicide or if it’s okay to ask someone to take you out of your misery which is euthanasia. Well it is not right why put that sin on yourself and then why go ahead and involves someone else in your sin to get them to sin for your benefit? That is wrong on all kind of accounts. If you think that you want to do something that is morally wrong then you go ahead and do that, but do not involve an innocent person into the situation because we are all held accountable for our sins, this just goes off my beliefs and background. But Catholic leaders and moral teachers, they believe that life is the most basic gift of a loving God- a gift over which we have stewardship but not absolute dominion. Our tradition, declaring a moral obligation to care for our own life and health and to seek such care from others, recognizes that we are not morally obligated to use all available medical procedures in every set of circumstances. But that tradition clearly and strongly affirms that as a responsible steward of life one must never directly intend to cause one’s own death, or the death of an innocent victim, by action or omission (procon.org)†¦ both of our views seems to match up, so do you think it is right or wrong? Living wills can be used to refuse extraordinary, life-prolonging care and are effective in providing clear and convincing evidence that may be necessary under state statutes to refuse care after one becomes terminally ill (procon.org). It is always a good thing to have a living will so that your plans can be carried out by your family. Having this document will cut out a lot confusion and questionable decisions because you have documentation off everything. Without a living will then there is where the problems come from and that’s when the medical office staff have to get involved in it as well as other authorities. In Texas, where I live physician assisted suicide is illegal and I think that it should remain that way. Because there is no need for a doctor to help you commit suicide just because you are uncomfortable in life. That’s just like making regular suicide legal and not doing anything to those people that are trying to harm themselves when they really need a doctor to help them and care for them which is what doctors are supposed to do. In Texas it is illegal for physician assisted suicide. It is considered a class c misdemeanor if no suicide or bodily injury results, which means that they attempted to commit suicide but it did not go right. But if it does go right and the doctor helps kill the patient then it is a state jail felony, which means that the suicide was attempted with bodily injury. Then after that I randomly decided to pick Minnesota as my other state to see what the differences were in laws. Again it is illegal for physician assisted suicide in Minnesota and the conditions are way harder than in Texas. In Minnesota you receive up to 15 years in prison and/or a fine up to 30,000 if suicide results; up to seven years in prison and/or a fine up to 14,000 if attempted suicide results. The differences between the two are fines and different types of cases, in Texas it could be a class c misdemeanor whereas in Minnesota you will go to jail or pay the fines. In conclusion, you have seen and read all of the information above and it clearly states that I am against physician assisted suicide or euthanasia. It is morally wrong to kill someone and it is morally wrong to kill someone else to take their pain away. Minnesota laws are a lot stricter than Texas laws for as physician assisted suicide and euthanasia. Which I thought Texas would be where I live, would have the stronger laws with the harsher punishment which surprised me. I learned a lot throughout this paper and learned that there is a right and a wrong way to do things in the medical field and you have to follow command. It is your duty to protect and save lives rather than end them. I do however; agree that it is right to die a natural life. REFERENCES Dictionary.com (2013) Retrieved from: http://dictionary.reference.com/ (n.d.)(2010) Retrieved from: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/182951.php (n.d.) Retrieved from: http://www.pregnantpause.org/euth/types ProCon.org (2013) Retrieved from: http://euthanasia.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000126