Most Opposition to Abortion Relies Essay

A Defense of Abortion Author(s): Judith Jarvis Thomson Source: Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Autumn, 1971), pp. 47-66 Published by: Blackwell Publishing Stable URL: http://www. jstor. org/stable/2265091 Accessed: 10/01/2010 00:54 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www. jstor. org/page/info/about/policies/terms. jsp. JSTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www. jstor. org/action/showPublisher? publisherCode=black. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor. org. Blackwell Publishing is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Philosophy and Public Affairs. http://www. jstor. org JUDITH JARVISTHOMSON A Defense of Abortion’ Most opposition to abortion relies on the premise that the fetus is a human being, a person, from the moment of conception. The premise is argued for, but, as I think, not well. Take, for example, the most common argument. We are asked to notice that the development of a human being from conception through birth into childhood is continuous; then it is said that to draw a line, to choose a point in this development and say â€Å"before this point the thing is not a person, after this point it is a person† is to make an arbitrary choice, a choice for which in the nature of things no good reason can be given. It is concluded that the fetus is, or anyway that we had better say it is, a person from the moment of conception. But this conclusion does not follow. Similar things might be said about the development of an acorn into an oak tree, and it does not follow that acorns are oak trees, or that we had better say they are. Arguments of this form are sometimes called â€Å"slippery slope arguments†-the phrase is perhaps self-explanatory-and it is dismaying that opponents of abortion rely on them so heavily and uncritically. I am inclined to agree, however, that the prospects for â€Å"drawing a line† in the development of the fetus look dim. I am inclined to think also that we shall probably have to agree that the fetus has already become a human person well before birth. Indeed, it comes as a surprise when one first learns how early in its life it begins to acquire human characteristics. By the tenth week, for example, it already has i. I am very much indebted to James Thomson for discussion, criticism, and many helpful suggestions. 48 Philosophy ; Public Affairs a face, arms and legs, fingers and toes; it has internal organs, and brain activity is detectable. 2 On the other hand, I think that the premise is false, that the fetus is not a person from the moment of conception. A newly fertilized ovum, a newly implanted clump of cells, is no more a person than an acorn is an oak tree. But I shall not discuss any of this. For it seems to me to be of great interest to ask what happens if, for the sake of argument, we allow the premise. How, precisely, are we supposed to get from there to the conclusion that abortion is morally impermissible? Opponents of abortion commonly spend most of their time establishing that the fetus is a person, and hardly any time explaining the step from there to the impermissibility of abortion. Perhaps they think the step too simple and obvious to require much comment. Or perhaps instead they are simply being economical in argument. Many of those who defend abortion rely on the premise that the fetus is not a person, but only a bit of tissue that will become a person at birth; and why pay out more arguments than you have to? Whatever the explanation, I suggest that the step they take is neither easy nor obvious, that it calls for closer examination than it is commonly given, and that when we do give it this closer examination we shall feel inclined to reject it. I propose, then, that we grant that the fetus is a person. from the moment of conception. How does the argument go from here? Something like this, I take it. Every person has a right to life. So the fetus has a right to life. No doubt the mother has a right to decide what shall happen in and to her body; everyone would grant that. But surely a person’s right to life is stronger and more stringent than the mother’s right to decide what happens in and to her body, and so outweighs it. So the fetus may not be killed; an abortion may not be performed. It sounds plausible. But now let me ask you to imagine this. You wake up in the morning and find yourself back to back in bed with an unconscious violinist. A famous unconscious violinist. He has been found to have a fatal kidney ailment, and the Society of Music Lovers 2. Daniel Callahan, Abortion: Law, Choice and Morality (New York, 1970), p. 373. This book gives a fascinating survey of the available information on abortion. The Jewish tradition is surveyed in David M. Feldman, Birth Control in Jewish Law (New York, i968), Part 5, the Catholic tradition in John T. Noonan, Jr. , â€Å"An Almost Absolute Value in History,† in The Morality of Abortion, ed. John T. Noonan, Jr. (Cambridge, Mass. , 1970). 49 A Defense of Abortion has canvassed all the available medical records and found that you alone have the right blood type to help. They have therefore kidnapped you, and last night the violinist’s circulatory system was plugged into yours, so that your kidneys can be used to extract poisons from his blood as well as your own. The director of the hospital now tells you, â€Å"Look, we’re sorry the Society of Music Lovers did this to you-we would never have permitted it if we had known. But still, they did it, and the violinist now is plugged into you. To unplug you would be to kill him. But never mind, it’s only for nine months. By then he will have recovered from his ailment, and can safely be unplugged from you. † Is it morally incumbent on you to accede to this situation? No doubt it would be very nice of you if you did, a great kindness. But do you have to accede to it? What if it were not nine months, but nine years? Or longer still? What if the director of the hospital says, â€Å"Tough luck, I agree, but you’ve now got to stay in bed, with the violinist plugged into you, for the rest of your life. Because remember this. All persons have a right to life, and violinists are persons. Granted you have a right to decide what happens in and to your body, but a person’s right to life outweighs your right to decide what happens in and to your body. So you cannot ever be unplugged from him. † I imagine you would regard this as outrageous, which suggests that something really is wrong with that plausible-sounding argument I mentioned a moment ago. In this case, of course, you were kidnapped; you didn’t volunteer for the operation that plugged the violinist into your kidneys. Can those who oppose abortion on the ground I mentioned make an exception for a pregnancy due to rape? Certainly. They can say that persons have a right to life only if they didn’t come into existence because of rape; or they can say that all persons have a right to life, but that some have less of a right to life than others, in particular, that those who came into existence because of rape have less. But these statements have a rather unpleasant sound. Surely the question of whether you have a right to life at all, or how much of it you have, shouldn’t turn on the question of whether or not you are the product of a rape. And in fact the people who oppose abortion on the ground I mentioned do not make this distinction, and hence do not make an exception in case of rape. 50 Philosophy ; Public Affairs Nor do they make an exception for a case in which the mother has to spend the nine months of her pregnancy in bed. They would agree that would be a great pity, and hard on the mother; but all the same, all persons have a right to ife, the fetus is a person, and so on. I suspect, in fact, that they would not make an exception for a case in which, miraculously enough, the pregnancy went on for nine years, or even the rest of the mother’s life. Some won’t even make an exception for a case in which continuation of the pregnancy is likely to shorten the mother’s life; they regard abortion as impermissible even to save the mother’s life. Such cases are nowadays very rare, and many opponents of abortion do not accept this extreme view. Moreover, in killing the child, one would be killing an innocent person, for the child has committed no crime, and is not aiming at his mother’s death. And then there are a variety of ways in which this 3. The term â€Å"direct† in the arguments I refer to is a technical one. Roughly, what is meant by â€Å"direct killing† is either killing as an end in itself, or killing as a means to some end, for example, the end of saving someone else’s life. See note 6, below, for an example of its use. 51 A Defense of Abortion might be continued. i) But as directly killing an innocent person is always and absolutely impermissible, an abortion may not be performed. Or, (2) as directly killing an innocent person is murder, and murder is always and absolutely impermissible, an abortion may not be performed. Because unplugging you would be directly killing an innocent violinist, and that’s murder, and that’s impermissible. † If anything in the world is true, it is that you do not commit murder, you do not do what is impermissible, if you reach around to your back and unplug yourself from that violinist to save your life. The main focus of attention in writings on abortion has been on what a third party may or may not do in answer to a request from a woman for an abortion. This is in a way understandable. Things being as they are, there isn’t much a woman can safely do to abort herself. So the question asked is what a third party may do, and what the mother may do, if it is mentioned at all, is deduced, almost as an afterthought, from what it is concluded that third parties may do. But it seems to me that to treat the matter in this way is to refuse to grant to the mother that very status of person which is so firmly insisted on for the fetus. For we cannot simply read off what a person may do from what a third party may do. Suppose you find yourself trapped in a tiny house with a growing child. I mean a very tiny house, and a rapidly growing child-you are already up against the wall f the house and in a few minutes you’ll be crushed to death. The child on the other hand won’t be crushed to death; if nothing is done to stop him from growing he’ll be hurt, but in the end he’ll simply burst open the house and walk out a free man. Now I could well understand it if a bystander were to say, â€Å"There’s nothing we can do for you. We c annot choose between your life and his, we cannot be the ones to decide who is to live, we cannot intervene. † But it cannot be concluded that you too can do nothing, that you cannot attack it to save your life. However innocent the child may be, you do not have to wait passively while it crushes you to death. Perhaps a pregnant woman is vaguely felt to have the status of house, to which we don’t allow the 53 A Defense of Abortion right of self-defense. But if the woman houses the child, it should be remembered that she is a person who houses it. 1 should perhaps stop to say explicitly that I am not claiming that people have a right to do anything whatever to save their lives. I think, rather, that there are drastic limits to the right of self-defense. If someone threatens you with death unless you torture someone else to death, I think you have not the right, even to save your life, to do so. But the case under consideration here is very different. In our case there are only two people involved, one whose life is threatened, and one who threatens it. Both are innocent: the one who is threatened is not threatened because of any fault, the one who threatens does not threaten because of any fault. For this reason we may feel that we bystanders cannot intervene. But the person threatened can. In sum, a woman surely can defend her life against the threat to it posed by the unborn child, even if doing so involves its death. And this shows not merely that the theses in (i) through (4) are false; it shows also that the extreme view of abortion is false, and so we need not canvass any other possible ways of arriving at it from the argument I mentioned at the outset. 2. The extreme view could of course be weakened to say that while abortion is permissible to save the mother’s life, it may not be performed by a third party, but only by the mother herself. But this cannot be right either. For what we have to keep in mind is that the mother and the unborn child are not like two tenants in a small house which has, by an unfortunate mistake, been rented to both: the mother owns the house. The fact that she does adds to the offensiveness of deducing that the mother can do nothing from the supposition that third parties can do nothing. But it does more than this: it casts a bright light on the supposition that third parties can do nothing. Certainly it lets us see that a third party who says â€Å"I cannot choose between you† is fooling himself if he thinks this is impartiality. If Jones has found and fastened on a certain coat, which he needs to keep him from freezing, but which Smith also needs to keep him from freezing, then it is not impartiality that says â€Å"I cannot choose between you† when Smith owns the coat. Women have said again and again â€Å"This body is my body! † and they have reason to feel angry, reason to feel that it has been like shouting into the wind. Smith, after all, is 54 Philosophy & Public Affairs hardly likely to bless us if we say to him, â€Å"Of course it’s your coat, anybody would grant that it is. But no one may choose between you and Jones who is to have it.We should really ask what it is that says â€Å"no one may choose† in the face of the fact that the body that houses the child is the mother’s body. It may be simply a failure to appreciate this fact. But it may be something more interesting, namely the sense that one has a right to refuse to lay hands on people, even where it would be just and fair to do so, even where justice seems to require that somebody do so. Thus justice might call for somebody to get Smith’s coat back from Jones, and yet you have a right to refuse to be the one to lay hands on Jones, a right to refuse to do physical violence to him. This, I think, must be granted. But then what should be said is not â€Å"no one may choose,† but only â€Å"I cannot choose,† and indeed not even this, but â€Å"I will not act,† leaving it open that somebody else can or should, and in particular that anyone in a position of authority, with the job of securing people’s rights, both can and should. So this is no difficulty. I have not been arguing that any given third party must accede to the mother’s request that he perform an abortion to save her life, but only that he may. I suppose that in some views of human life the mother’s body is only on loan to her, the loan not being one which gives her any prior claim to it. One who held this view might well think it impartiality to say â€Å"I cannot choose. † But I shall simply ignore this possibility. My own view is that if a human being has any just, prior claim to anything at all, he has a just, prior claim to his own body. And perhaps this needn’t be argued for here anyway, since, as I mentioned, the arguments against abortion we are looking at do grant that the woman has a right to decide what happens in and to her body. But although they do grant it, I have tried to show that they do not take seriously what is done in granting it. I suggest the same thing will reappear even more clearly when we turn away from cases in which the mother’s life is at stake, and attend, as I propose we now do, to the vastly more common cases in which a woman wants an abortion for some less weighty reason than preserving her own life. 3. Where the mother’s life is not at stake, the argument I mentioned at the outset seems to have a much stronger pull. â€Å"Everyone 55 A Defense of Abortion as a right to life, so the unborn person has a right to life. † And isn’t the child’s right to life weightier than anything other than the mother’s own right to life, which she might put forward as ground for an abortion? This argument treats the right to life as if it were unproblematic. It is not, and this seems to me to be precisely the source of the mistake. For we should now, at long last , ask what it comes to, to have a right to life. In some views having a right to life includes having a right to be given at least the bare minimum one needs for continued life. But suppose that what in fact is the bare minimum a man needs for continued life is something he has no right at all to be given? If I am sick unto death, and the only thing that will save my life is the touch of Henry Fonda’s cool hand on my fevered brow, then all the same, I have no right to be given the touch of Henry Fonda’s cool hand on my fevered brow. It would be frightfully nice of him to fly in from the West Coast to provide it. It would be less nice, though no doubt well meant, if my friends flew out to the West Coast and carried Henry Fonda back with them. But I have no right at all against anybody that he should do this for me. Or again, to return to the story I told earlier, the fact that for continued life that violinist needs the continued use of your kidneys does not establish that he has a right to be given the continued use of your kidneys. He certainly has no right against you that you should give him continued use of your kidneys. For nobody has any right to use your kidneys unless you give him such a right; and nobody has the right against you that you shall give him this right-if you do allow him to go on using your kidneys, this is a kindness on your part, and not something he can claim from you as his due. Nor has he any right against anybody else that they should give him continued use of your kidneys. Certainly he had no right against the Society of Music Lovers that they should plug him into you in the first place. And if you now start to unplug yourself, having learned that you will otherwise have to spend nine years in bed with him, there is nobody in the world who must try to prevent you, in order to see to it that he is given something he has a right to be given. Some people are rather stricter about the right to life. In their view, it does not include the right to be given anything, but amounts to, 56 Philosophy & Public Affairs and only to, the right not to be killed by anybody. But here a related difficulty arises. If everybody is to refrain from killing that violinist, then everybody must refrain from doing a great many different sorts of things. Everybody must refrain from slitting his throat, everybody must refrain from shooting him-and everybody must refrain from unplugging you from him. But does he have a right against everybody that they shall refrain from unplugging you from him? To refrain from doing this is to allow him to continue to use your kidneys. It could be argued that he has a right against us that we should allow him to continue to use your kidneys. That is, while he had no right against us that we should give him the use of your kidneys, it might be argued that he anyway has a right against us that we shall not now intervene and deprive him of the use of your kidneys. I shall come back to third-party interventions later. But certainly the violinist has no right against you that you shall allow him to continue to use your kidneys. As I said, if you do allow him to use them, it is a kindness on your part, and not something you owe him. The difficulty I point to here is not peculiar to the right to life. It reappears in connection with all the other natural rights; and it is something which an adequate account of rights must deal with. For present purposes it is enough just to draw attention to it. But I would stress that I am not arguing that people do not have a right to lifequite to the contrary, it seems to me that the primary control we must place on the acceptability of an account of rights is that it should turn out in that account to be a truth that all persons have a right to life. I am arguing only that having a right to life does not guarantee having either a right to be given the use of or a right to be allowed continued use of another person’s body-even if one needs it for life itself. So the right to life will not serve the opponents of abortion in the very simple and clear way in which they seem to have thought it would. 4. There is another way to bring out the difficulty. In the most ordinary sort of case, to deprive someone of what he has a right to is to treat him unjustly. Suppose a boy and his small brother are jointly given a box of chocolates for Christmas. If the older boy takes the box and refuses to give his brother any of the chocolates, he is unjust to -him, for the brother has been given a right to half of them. But 57 A Defense of Abortion uppose that, having learned that otherwise it means nine years in bed with that violinist, you unplug yourself from him. You surely are not being unjust to him, for you gave him no right to use your kidneys, and no one else can have given him any such right. But we have to notice that in unplugging yourself, you are killing him; and violinists, like everybody else, have a right to life, and thus in the view we wer e considering just now, the right not to be killed. So here you do what he supposedly has a right you shall not do, but you do not act unjustly to him in doing it. The emendation which may be made at this point is this: the right to life consists not in the right not to be killed, but rather in the right not to be killed unjustly. This runs a risk of circularity, but never mind: it would enable us to square the fact that the violinist has a right to life with the fact that you do not act unjustly toward him in unplugging yourself, thereby killing him. For if you do not kill him unjustly, you do not violate his right to life, and so it is no wonder you do him no injustice. But if this emendation is accepted, the gap in the argument against abortion stares us plainly in the face: it is by no means enough to show that the fetus is a person, and to remind us that all persons have a right to life-we need to be shown also that killing the fetus violates its right to life, i. e. , that abortion is unjust killing. And is it? I suppose we may take it as a datum that in a case of pregnancy due to rape the mother has not given the unborn person a right to the use of her body for food and shelter. Indeed, in what pregnancy could it be supposed that the mother has given the unborn person such a right? It is not as if there were unborn persons drifting about the world, to whom a woman who wants a child says â€Å"I invite you in. † But it might be argued that there are other ways one can have acquired a right to the use of another person’s body than by having been invited to use it by that person. Suppose a woman voluntarily indulges in intercourse, knowing of the chance it will issue in pregnancy, and then she does become pregnant; is she not in part responsible for the presence, in fact the very existence, of the unborn person inside her? No doubt she did not invite it in. But doesn’t her partial responsibility for its being there itself give it a right to the use of her 58 Philosophy ; Public Affairs body? 7 If so, then her aborting it would be more like the boy’s taking away the chocolates, and less like your unplugging yourself from the violinist-doing so would be depriving it of what it does have a right to, and thus would be doing it an injustice. And then, too, it might be asked whether or not she can kill it even to save her own life: If she voluntarily called it into existence, how can she now kill it, even in self-defense? The first thing to be said about this is that it is something new. Opponents of abortion have been so concerned to make out the independence of the fetus, in order to establish that it has a right to life, just as its mother does, that they have tended to overlook the possible support they might gain from making out that the fetus is dependent on the mother, in order to establish that she has a special kind of responsibility for it, a responsibility that gives it rights against her which are not possessed by any independent person-such as an ailing violinist who is a stranger to her. On the other hand, this argument would give the unborn person a right to its mother’s body only if her pregnancy resulted from a voluntary act, undertaken in full knowledge of the chance a pregnancy might result from it. It would leave out entirely the unborn person whose existence is due to rape. Pending the availability of some further argument, then, we would be left with the conclusion that unborn persons whose existence is due to rape have no right to the use of their mothers’ bodies, and thus that aborting them is not depriving them of anything they have a right to and hence is not unjust killing. And we should also notice that it is not at all plain that this argument really does go even as far as it purports to. For there are cases and cases, and the details make a difference. If the room is stuffy, and I therefore open a window to air it, and a burglar climbs in, it would be absurd to say,†Ah, now he can stay, she’s given him a right to the use of her house-for she is partially responsible for his presence there, having voluntarily done what enabled him to get in, in full knowledge that there are such things as burglars, and that burglars 7. The need for a discussion of this argument was brought home to me by members of the Society for Ethical and Legal Philosophy, to whom this paper was originally presented. 59 A Defense of Abortion burgle. † It would be still more absurd to say this if I had had bars installed outside my windows, precisely to prevent burglars from getting in, and a burglar got in only because of a defect in the bars. It remains equally absurd if we imagine it is not a burglar who climbs in, but an innocent person who blunders or falls in. Again, suppose it were like this: people-seeds drift about in the air like pollen, and if you open your windows, one may drift in and take root in your carpets or upholstery. You don’t want children, so you fix up your windows with fine mesh screens, the very best you can buy. As can happen, however, and on very, very rare occasions does happen, one of the screens is defective; and a seed drifts in and takes root. Does the person-plant who now develops have a right to the use of your house? Surely not-despite the fact that you voluntarily opened your windows, you knowingly kept carpets and upholstered furniture, and you knew that screens were sometimes defective. Someone may argue that you are responsible for its rooting, that it does have a right to your house, because after all you could have lived out your life with bare floors and furniture, or with sealed windows and doors. But this won’t do-for by the same token anyone can avoid a pregnancy due to rape by having a hysterectomy, or anyway by never leaving home without a (reliable!army. It seems to me that the argument we are looking at can establish at most that there are some cases in which the unborn person has a right to the use of its mother’s body, and therefore some cases in which abortion is unjust killing. There is room for much discussion and argument as to precisely which, if any. But I think we should sidestep this issue and leave it open, for at any rate the argument certainly does not est ablish that all abortion is unjust killing. 5. There is room for yet another argument here, however. We surely must all grant that there may be cases in which it would be morally indecent to detach a person from your body at the cost of his life. Suppose you learn that what the violinist needs is not nine years of your life, but only one hour: all you need do to save his life is to spend one hour in that bed with him. Suppose also that letting him use your kidneys for that one hour would not affect your health in the slightest. Admittedly you were kidnapped. Admittedly you did not give 6o Philosophy & Public Affairs anyone permission to plug him into you. Nevertheless it seems to me plain you ought to allow him to use your kidneys for that hour-it would be indecent to refuse. Again, suppose pregnancy lasted only an hour, and constituted no threat to life or health. And suppose that a woman becomes pregnant as a result of rape. Admittedly she did not voluntarily do anything to bring about the existence of a child. Admittedly she did nothing at all which would give the unborn person a right to the use of her body. All the same it might well be said, as in the newly emended violinist story, that she ought to allow it to remain for that hour-that it would be indecent in her to refuse. Now some people are inclined to use the term â€Å"right†in such a way that it follows from the fact that you ought to allow a person to use your body for the hour he needs, that he has a right to use your body for the hour he needs, even though he has not been given that right by any person or act. They may say that it follows also that if you refuse, you act unjustly toward him. This use of the term is perhaps so common that it cannot be called wrong; nevertheless it seems to me to be an unfortunate loosening of what we would do better to keep a tight rein on. Suppose that box of chocolates I mentioned earlier had not been given to both boys jointly, but was given only to the older boy. There he sits, stolidly eating his way through the box, his small brother watching enviously. Here we are likely to say â€Å"Youought not to be so mean. You ought to give your brother some of those chocolates. † My own view is that it just does not follow from the truth of this that the brother has any right to any of the chocolates. If the boy refuses to give his brother any, he is greedy, stingy, callous-but not unjust. I suppose that the people I have in mind will say it does follow that the brother has a right to some of the chocolates, and thus that the boy does act unjustly if he refuses to give his brother any. But the effect of saying this is to obscure what we should keep distinct, namely the difference between the boy’s refusal in this case and the boy’s refusal in the earlier case, in which the box was given to both boys jointly, and in which the small brother thus had what was from any point of view clear title to half. A further objection to so using the term â€Å"right†that from the fact that A ought to do a thing for B, it follows that B has a right against A 6I A Defense of Abortion that A do it for him, is that it is going to make the question of whether or not a man has a right to a thing turn on how easy it is to provide him with it; and this seems not merely unfortunate, but morally unacceptable. Take the case of Henry Fonda again. I said earlier that I had no right to the touch of his cool hand on my fevered brow, even though I needed it to save my life. I said it would be frightfully nice of him to fly in from the West Coast to provide me with it, but that I had no right against him that he should do so. But suppose he isn’t on the West Coast. Suppose he has only to walk across the room, place a hand briefly on my brow-and lo, my life is saved. Then surely he ought to do it, it would be indecent to refuse. Is it to be said â€Å"Ah, well, it follows that in this case she has a right to the touch of his hand on her brow, and so it would be an injustice in him to refuse†? So that I have a right to it when it is easy for him to provide it, though no right when it’s hard? It’s rather a shocking idea that anyone’s rights should fade away and disappear as it gets harder and harder to accord them to him. So my own view is that even though you ought to let the violinist use your kidneys for the one hour he needs, we should not conclude that he has a right to do so-we should say that if you refuse, you are, like the boy who owns all the chocolates and will give none away, self-centered and callous, indecent in fact, but not unjust. And similarly, that even supposing a case in which a woman pregnant due to rape ought to allow the unborn person to use her body for the hour he needs, we should not conclude that he has a right to do so; we should conclude that she is self-centered, callous, indecent, but not unjust, if she refuses. The complaints are no less grave; they are just different. However, there is no need to insist on this point. If anyone does wish to deduce â€Å"he has a ight† from â€Å"you ought,† then all the same he must surely grant that there are cases in which it is not morally required of you that you allow that violinist to use your kidneys, and in which he does not have a right to use them, and in which you do not do him an injustice if you refuse. And so also for mother and unborn child. Except in such cases as the unborn person has a right to demand it-and we were leaving open the possibility that there may be such cases-nobody is morally required to make large sacrifices, of health, of all other interests and concerns, of all other duties 62 Philosophy & Public Affairs and commitments, for nine years, or even for nine months, in order to keep another person alive. 6. We have in fact to distinguish between two kinds of Samaritan: the Good Samaritan and what we might call the Minimally Decent Samaritan. The story of the Good Samaritan, you will remember, goes like this: A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him he had compassion on him. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, â€Å"Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.(Luke I0:30-35) The Good Samaritan went out of his way, at some cost to himself, to help one in need of it. We are not told what the options were, that is, whether or not the priest and the Levite could have helped by doing less than the Good Samaritan did, but assuming they could have, then the fact they did nothing at all shows they were not even Minimally Decent Samaritans, not because they were not Samaritans, but because they w ere not even minimally decent. These things are a matter of degree, of course, but there is a difference, and it comes out perhaps most clearly in the story of Kitty Genovese, who, as you will remember, was murdered while thirtyeight people watched or listened, and did nothing at all to help her. A Good Samaritan would have rushed out to give direct assistance 63 A Defense of Abortion against the murderer. Or perhaps we had better allow that it would have been a Splendid Samaritan who did this, on the ground that it would have involved a risk of death for himself. But the thirty-eight not only did not do this, they did not even trouble to pick up a phone to call the police. Minimally Decent Samaritanism would call for doing at least that, and their not having done it was monstrous. After telling the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus said â€Å"Go, and do thou likewise. † Perhaps he meant that we are morally required to act as the Good Samaritan did. Perhaps he was urging people to do more than is morally required of them. At all events it seems plain that it was not morally required of any of the thirty-eight that he rush out to give direct assistance at the risk of his own life, and that it is not morally required of anyone that he give long stretches of his lifenine years or nine months-to sustaining the life of a person who has no special right (we were leaving open the possibility of this) to demand it. Indeed, with one rather striking class of exceptions, no one in any country in the world is legally required to do anywhere near as much as this for anyone else.

Larkin’s use of language Essay

The poems that I have chosen to comment on from the collection The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin are Here, Nothing to be said and Faith Healing. I have chosen to write about these three because they are all very different in terms of theme, language, verse form and Larkin’s message and purpose. Here is the opening poem of The Whitsun Weddings. It locates the reader in Larkin’s England and centres around a journey the protagonist is making from London to Northumberland via Larkin’s hometown of Hull. Larkin uses a range of language and writing devices to express his feelings and at times his prejudices through his poetry and he does this especially well in Here. The first stanza begins with â€Å"swerving east†. The word â€Å"swerving† suggests a dangerous movement and a lack of control from the person or thing that is swerving. When someone swerves it is usually to avoid something so by using the word â€Å"swerving† Larkin is immediately presenting the reader with a sense of avoidance and lack of control. Larkin then goes on to say that the fields are â€Å"too thin and thistled to be called meadows†. This shows that he is passing through an area of land, which cannot quite be classed as countryside but is not quite urban. This could possibly be a representation of how Larkin is feeling at the time about life because even the countryside is not genuine; therefore Larkin may be commenting on the falsity of life because of its in-between state. The words â€Å"Thin† and â€Å"thistled† are harsh sounding words that make up alliteration. This alliteration may have been used to mimic the gentle hissing sound of the train or can moving along the track or road. The harsh sounding words are probably applied as a vent for Larkin’s disdain on a philosophical level for the falsity and lack of true meaning in life and on a smaller level for the land he is passing through that is not quite beautiful enough to be countryside. A technique that interests me is used in the line â€Å"harsh-named halt†. This phrase uses a repetition of the /h/ sound, which is quite a hard sound to pronounce and therefore actually halts the reader’s rhythm. This includes alliteration of the /h/ sound but also a kind of onomatopoeia because the word â€Å"halt† is actually a word that sounds like a stoppage or halt and actively brings the reader to a momentary pause. The word â€Å"harsh† is actually a harsh word, which adds more emphasis to the phrase. This technique is very effective because it immerses the reader in the journey of the protagonist as it actually halts their flow when the protagonist’s train comes to a halt. Larkin uses a lot of alliteration in Here, an example of this occurs in the first stanza when alliteration occurs four times in the space of two lines: â€Å"Swerving to solitude of skies and scarecrows, haystacks, hares and pheasants†. There is a repetition of the word â€Å"swerving† which reiterates the lack of control of the protagonist. It also shows the part of the journey that is taking him through the countryside and he is â€Å"swerving† east away from the towns and towards the countryside. The repetition of the /s/ hissing sound gives a sense of speed and also replicates the sound of the train or car moving. The /s/ sound runs throughout two lines which links them together and helps demonstrate the onward movement of the protagonist and the passage of time. The actual shape of the letter /s/ is flowing and therefore mimics the journey flowing onward. In the last line of the first stanza Larkin describes the entrance to a town by saying â€Å"the shining gull-marked mud gathers to the surprise of a large town†. â€Å"Gull-marked mud† can be used as a comparison to â€Å"harsh-named halt† a few lines previously and demonstrates the difference between town and country. The comparison between â€Å"harsh-named halt† and â€Å"gull-marked mud† can also be drawn through the hyphen between the first two words (which could be used to show the onward motion of the journey) and the alliteration used of the /h/ and /m/ sounds.

Actus Reus and Mens Rea Essay

The elements that constitue mens rea, namely: 1. The accused knew what they were doing 2. They knew what they were doing was wrong (legally) 3. They were in sound mind to choose whether or not to do it 4. They chose to do it anyway. If any of these 4 are not present, then mens rea is not complete, and the person can be found not guilty (including pleading insanity). Furthermore, there is a category of offences known as â€Å"strict liability offences†, for which there need not be any evidence of mens rea i.e. you can be found guilty of commiting a crime even without knowing it. This includes offences such as dog fouling, breaking the highway code etc. Essentially, it says that ignorance of the law is no defence, you’re guilty through the actus reus alone. On the other hand, often the opposite is true, mens rea in itself can lead to conviction i.e. if it was proved that a person was planning/intending to commit a crime, they can be convicted without actually having â€Å"done† anything. Usually, this takes the form of fulfilling an offence in itself e.g conspircay to commit murder. This has a great deal of importance today; if someone purchases a load of chemicals and mixes them to create explosives in their home, the law doesn’t have to wait for tem to blow something up before they can be convicted of terrorism. If you’ve seen the film â€Å"Minority Report†, you’ll know the dangers of taking this to the extreme. Broadly speaking, in criminal law, it must be proved beyond reasonable doubt that a person pposessed the relevant mens rea and committed the actus reus on order to be convicted of a crime. However, to cope with the variety of offences, to encourage awareness of the law and to ensure that the law has a moral element in its operation, then the two doctrine can stand on their own to lead to a conviction.

Situational Awareness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Situational Awareness - Essay Example 05). SA has been widely referenced in the world of aviation due to the fact that it plays a highly prominent role in operations taking place in flights. Even though the concept is considered to be very effectively in the domain of aviation, for safely operating aircraft functions for flights; it is no wonder to account for the fact that the very concept has been misemployed in its destined area. What is not appropriate is that the use of SA is most of the time based on an understanding which bases more on intuitive underpinnings than on objective analysis and implementation. Moreover, a commonly acceptable definition of SA is also scarce. As such the aviation psychologists have put all their attention on the mental links of SA owing to the fact that for tasks operations should undertake are of highly cognitive nature. Henceforth, the aviation psychologists have attempted to work out the cognitive areas that comprise the very components of SA. In other words, the aviation psychologist s have attempted to investigate the cognitive behavior of human practice that can lead to a successful understanding of SA. The empirical studies conducted in the past have revealed high correlation of memory usage in the practice of SA. (Sohn, & Doane, p. 461, 2004). Ways to Detect SA There are several ways by which ways to detect SA can be acquired. One such area is the analysis of the role played by memory in SA. Here, this single is divisible into many a subheads which tell us of the importance of understanding the role of memory in SA. Such relevant content as systems, hazards, or tasks are put to processing and ultimately stored in memory. Henceforth, the degree of accuracy of SA relies on memory in a way that the information coming in is synchronized into the cohesive interpretation and forecast of aircraft status. Due to the importance that memory components hold in SA, a number of researchers have concentrated on the role of memory in a number of differential tasks like air traffic control to detect ways of SA (Sohn, & Doane, p. 461, 2004). The basic step toward understanding SA and ways to detect it is to understand the construct of SA itself. According to Sohn, and Doane (p. 461, 2004), information processing view is the one step on which the entire understanding of SA can be employed. Here the authors quote Endsley's view that defines three levels of SA with respect to the components of processes that are cognitively perceivable. On this model the first level of understanding the construct takes into consideration the perceiving of the elements present in the environment. These elements can are other aircraft, status of the system being used, the terrain, and lights of warning. The second level of understanding the construct of SA to detect the ways to prevent any haphazard observation of any action is to integer information which is "a process of activating long-term memory (LTM) knowledge structures in order to organize the perceived situation elements into

WHAT I LEARNED IN THE CLASS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

WHAT I LEARNED IN THE CLASS - Essay Example As the word TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves More, a team leader needs to be proactive for efficient management of the relationship among the teammates and with the external members. I learned that to achieve organizational goals, the leader or manager needs to carefully define the duties and responsibilities for each employee and also standardize method of executing the tasks. Duties and responsibilities are defined by training, teaching and developing each worker to do the right job. The environment is constantly changing, and businesses have no control over the external environment. Businesses can only influence the internal environment and they require a framework of legal, social, political, economic and cultural factors. The internal factors include policies and plans, workers, business objectives and other factors with the business or organization. For the businesses to remain competitive, the managers need actively plan, organize, provide directions and coordinate the activities to adapt to the changing environment. For businesses to thrive, managers must achieve performance targets set by the business. The managers achieve these goals by focusing on their jobs and by motivating their subordinates. Working together as a team is important for the quality of output, retention and morale. It increases the productivity, improves quality, reduces costs and enhances speed. According to Frederick Brook in his book, The Mythical Man-Month, the time an individual takes to accomplish a task can be reduced by hiring more workers to assist in the completion of the job. An effective team has continual feedback on its performance, focuses on performance and has skilled members. Sometimes the team may fail due to lack of effective communication, proper chattering and goal setting, clear roles and trust. In a team environment, managers and

Annotated Bibliography for Staff and Skills Essay

Annotated Bibliography for Staff and Skills - Essay Example The reasonable prices of the cars produced by the company can be attributed to the outcome of its unique technology and processes which has attracted the people of all strata of society inclusive of low, middle and high income groups. Staffs recruited by the company are mainly from the background of information and technology, particularly competent in manufacturing technology. Additionally the company also focuses on the mass of a highly competent sales and marketing team with strong visionary and assertive approach and conversant with the best practices in business (Tata Motors-a, 2012). Organizational structure, strategy, system and style Like most global organizations, Tata Motors reflects a matrix organizational structure which forms a strong integration between the domestic and overseas operations. The matrix structure integrated the businesses and functions across geographies which makes it more efficient. It not only facilitates knowledge sharing and transfers across the orga nization. For instance the present strategy of the company is to apply the learning of the global companies such as Land Rover and Jaguar to its Indian operations which is possible and greatly facilitated through its matrix structure. Also it can use its knowledge existing in the Indian operations to compete in other emerging markets. The cultural style of the organization is to develop global leadership and managers who can apply their global learning in their individual overseas or domestic operations. The company represents a system which allows information enhancing, sharing and exchanging across its different business units. This is particular crucial in the present dynamic environment in which it works and its vulnerabilities on the company (Tata Motors Ltd, 2008, p.1-4). Role of leader in the organization One of the main drivers of success of Tata Motors is its strong leadership and management body. The strong tradition of entrepreneurship and leadership provides strong busin ess direction and guidance which reaches beyond the borders of India and enters into new markets. The company helps its employees to realize their true potential through the application of effective HR practices. This is done through effective employee empowerment program providing the workforce with dynamic career paths in congruence with the long term strategies and objectives of the firm. Supervisors and managers are allowed to take their own decisions related to work activities in areas of their expertise. This not only raises their responsibility and accountability towards work but also provides them with the freedom to excel in their skills and domain of expertise. Regular in-house training and external training forms key components of their employee development programs. The leaders also work on developing team building and group activities in the organization. Rewards and compensations are designed on the performance of teams in the organization. In this regard, virtual team s are also encouraged which comprises of members belonging to different countries. Team empowerment also forms a key strategy through which knowledge and information can be shared and exchanged between members of the organization. Decision making is tried to be decentralized in order to minimize

Psychology in Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Psychology in Education - Essay Example Curriculum should be designed in such a way that students could be developed morally, behaviorally, and socially without making compromises on the academic content. This is the only way confident and morally responsible students could be prepared in my instructional setting. As a teacher who is assigned to teach 9th to 12th graders in custody, I could adjust the curriculum content in such a way that it could then address and acknowledge the changing nature and desires of my students without favoring them completely. Wherever educational strategies fail, it happens mainly when the desires and ideas of the students are overlooked completely. To know my students’ interests, I would have their input in the curriculum development. First, I shall decide what topics to teach, then I shall discuss those topics with my students in the very first class, and encourage them to suggest alterations, modifications, and valuable insights so that the topics would occur and flow in a way that t hey find interest in. There would be certain topics that they would like to be taught first and others later. I would organize my chapters accordingly. I would also let them express how they would like their performance to be assessed. I would put a variety of assessment methods in front of them e.g. announced vs unannounced quizzes, oral vs written exams, individual assignments vs group assignments and would also tell them the pros and cons of each.

Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

Management - Assignment Example The manager will be efficient but if the program had no relevance with the organization’s objective, then he or she would be efficient but not effective. If the program costs more, the manager would be effective but not efficient. Manager of an organization can improve both simultaneously by introducing the emergent technology. In busy offices, time wasting can cost the company immensely. For instance, the manager can introduce a printer that can print data from computers and this can improve efficiency and effectiveness within the workplace (Ehman). Good reputation is the most important thing as it adds value to an organization. Being ethical and socially responsible is part of having a good organization. For instance, Aflac is an insurance company that has had recognition for being among the most ethical companies in the world. They have made this successful by treating shareholders with integrity and honesty. Wal-Mart is almost the largest retailer and private company employer in the world. Despite the huge profits, it has faced stiff allegations from employees that they are not treating the right. First, the company employs illegal immigrants so that they can cut down costs. Sometimes they go unpaid when they work overtime. Many workers also complain of sexual discrimination and denial to medical care plans. Social account is an imaginary account built by being helpful to people and it is measurable by the strength of one’s relationship within a network. We can earn, save, and spend this capital. It takes time and investment to earn social capital and the best way is to use attitudes and behaviors, which will build social capital (Townsend 24). Social capital can be of use in critical situations of an organization in order to improve its reputation. It is essential to propose a leadership process that can work passably with performance appraisal of Management by Objective. This is in the view of

Identify the behaviors associated with listening, hearing, and Essay

Identify the behaviors associated with listening, hearing, and non-listening - Essay Example The individual listening keeps on shifting the topic of conversation to them. It is a very narcissistic view to listening since the individual needs the conversation to be all centered on them. It is a self-centered form of ineffective listening. Selective Listening: This is the type of listening where an individual pays attention to only a portion or part of the conversation. Selective listening occurs as a result of people not being able to absorb everything that is being said by the speaker. Such individuals therefore use selective listening as a means to screen out parts of the conversation. It is an act that is synonymous skimming pages while reading. Defensive Listening: It occurs when a listener interprets an indirect attack by the speaker. For example, by telling someone that he or she looks like they have reduced in weight, the individual might think that you are suggesting that they were in the past looking fat. In the real sense, you didn’t intend to criticize them, you would merely have intended to complement the individual on the manner that they look at the moment than they did in the past. The listener thinks that the speaker focuses on criticizing them based on their past experience and reads every word that is said as an insult to them. Literal Listening: This involves listening that occurs only when the individual ignores or rejects the relationship level of meaning. The individual becomes insensitive to the feelings of the other person by listening

Case The Overpaid Bank Tellers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Case The Overpaid Bank Tellers - Essay Example For this reason, the HR department needs to realize is that tellers are the most important staff members in the bank. In this regard, tellers are the daily face of the bank to their customers since they interacted with them daily. For this reason, the HR committee should uphold the bank’s result-based system of increasing compensation and giving raises due to the rising cost of living. In this regard, altering the pay increase of the clerks will demoralize them. In addition, since the group of tellers was competent in its work, there was no need of making a decision based on findings from a survey conducted by another bank that is a competitor. From the case provided, it is evident that another bank, which is a competitor to State Bank, conducted this survey. In addition, it is important to point out that State Bank is the most progressive of the four banks operating in this area. Hence, while the wages in the survey might be accurate to some extent, the HR committee should not completely trust the accuracy of the wage survey. In addition, the committee should not completely trust the survey since there is no certainty whether the other banks responded honestly to the survey and provided the correct information. The policy by State Bank to raise their employees’ salaries based on their performance is of fundamental importance towards ensuring the achievement of the bank’s objectives and those of their individual employees. In this regard, this is the best way to ensure that the employees’ morale was high and effectively maintained to meet their individual set targets while the bank on the other hand realized its objectives. However, for this to work effectively, the bank has to define performance by outlining the types of input, behavior, and outcomes employees are supposed to meet (Latham & Wesley, 1994). In this case, these three factors are crucial in establishing the yardstick within which the bank will base its

Understand How to Safeguard Children Essay Example for Free

Understand How to Safeguard Children Essay Understanding how to safeguard the wellbeing of children and young people. 1. Understand the main legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding children and young people. 1. 1In englang and wales the polices and procedures for safeguarding and child protection in a setting for children and young people are a result of legislation passed in parliament including: The children Act 1986 and the children Act 2004 (england and wales) Children Order 1995 (northern ireland) The children act 1986 and children order. The aim of these of acts was to simplify the laws that protect children and young people. They tell carers/people how to work together when child abuse is suspected. Working together to safeguard children (1999) This provides professionals in england and wales guildines to help them work with a child who is at risk of harm. Children act 2004 This act includes Assessment framework for agencies to help them identify childrens needs LSCB (local safeguarding childrens broad) this has the power to make sure that social services, education services, the nhs, the police and any other services work together to help protect vulnerable children Working together to safeguarding children 2006 This updates safeguarding and how agencies should work on thier own and together with other agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Polices and procedures All settings that work with children and young children / people must: A arrangement to work with the LSCB A senior member of staff in charge of safeguarding arrangements An effective risk assesment to make sure that the safeguarding policy works CBR check on all adults who work with children to the age of 18. Contact information for parents or carers for all children under the age of 18. Up to date training for all staff on safeguarding. Policy for protection of children under the age of 18. 1. 2Safeguarding is about much more than just protecting children from direct abuse. People working in a enviroment with children and young people have a wider role to play than simply protecting from neglect and abuse. The staying safe action plan reconises important aspects in the wider view of safguarding these include: †¢Keeping children safe from accidents †¢Crime and bullying †¢Forces marriages †¢Missing children Actively promoting their welfare in a healthy and safe enviroment Child protection is action that is taken to protect children that are suffering or at risk of suffering from significant harm. 1. 3It is important for all persons that are working with or around children follow guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguard the welbeing of children and young people so they are able to identify if a child or young person is in risk of harm or ne ed because of the vulnerbility. The earlier a child at risk is detected the better the outcome. Before employing staff into a childcare setting they should be made aware of all the policie and procedures to give the a clear understanding of all aspects of safeguarding the children in there care these should inculde the following: Health and safety Child protection Outings Visitors to the setting Contact with children Risk assesments should be carried out on the setting requarly to make sure there are no safeguarding risks such as children leaving the setting unnoticed or someone entering the setting that as not been authorised to. There are many requirements for keeping children safe in there setting, all staff should under go training to be made aware so that can recognise signs of abuse and learn the correct way to deal with situations. It is important to make sure there is contact details for all parent/carers of children in the care of the setting. Also a senior member of staff that is trained to the correct level needed to take charge of all safeguarding requirements. All guidelines are set in place to help and improve the level of safeguarding and to make sure that services and agencies work together. 1. The local safeguarding childrens board call serious case reviews when it is belived that a child has died due to abuse or neglect. All the nesserary authoritys will be invovled such as childrens services, police, health and education professionals. When a serious case such a child or young person dieing due to neglect it is important for the local authorties to find the reason why it as happened and chec k that all the correct polices and procedures had taken place in the case and if it comes about that society has failed the causes and reasons for this happening need to be address and dealt with. Each service invovled should reveiw the way they are practicing to see if there is any changes that need to be made to prevent serious cases happening, The LSCB will also require a overveiw report to make inquiries and recommendations to each indulvidual service involved. It is important for any service that is dealing with children to imform and share information with the correct authority if they believe there is a chance they believe there could be a incident that could result in a child suffering abuse or even leading to a child dieing. It is important that the correct information is always shared with the nessercary person and good communication between all the local services invovled in the case and that events of the case and logged accuratley. 2. understanding the importance of working in partnership with other organisations to safeguard children and young people 2. 1It is important to safeguard children and young people as without this protection their future could be negatively affected. Their health and development could be affected as its possible they could withdraw from family and peers which would affect them emotionally and also developmentally fall behind with educational milestones (if school is missed). Children and young people need to be protected from neglect and abuse and have a safe environment in which to grown up in with parents, teachers and any other close adult being approachable and accessible if needed, when/if any problem or concerns were to arise. This is all crucial in a child’s upbringing as the care they receive through their childhood will contribute to the success of the child’s ability to reach their full potential into adulthood. 2. 2It is important to use a centred approach when safeguarding children. As this will give you the first hand opinion and facts from the child including feelings and wishes about their current situation and their future. This will make the organisations response more accurate and appropriate to meet the specific needs of the child or young person. It is important therefore to develop a trusting relationship with the child or young person as this will make it easier to discuss their wishes and concerns, which will give the professionals the opportunity to involve the child or young person where possible in decision making about current intervention if necessary and any future action, as ‘the unknown’ will be a worry to the child so hopefully making them aware step by step will make the process less worrying and give a more accurate result to the problem. 2. 3Partnership working is when all agencies or groups of individauls work together to insure the welfare of a child. Working together in partnership is important as the child or young person needs to be safeguarded in all areas and enviroments, it is also important that each party comunicates to the other to ensure the link of correct information is keep up to date to ensure the safety and protection of the child. The importance of partnership working runs through every aspect of safeguarding from goverment legislation to local working, many different agencies maybe be involved depending on the case some of these would be family, social worker, gp, health vistor and school staff. It is important for any party to inform the correct person if they have concerns about the welfare of any child as early intervention will give the 2. 4Roles and responsibililities of different organisations: Social services: Have statutory responsibilities to provide support to vulnerable children and families in need. This may be after a death or when families are finding everyday life difficult. Most social workers are employed by social services. Health Visitiors: Have a responsibility for the health of babies and young children under five. They provide support and guidance to the parents of young children and carry out assessments of a child’s development. General Practitioners (GP): GPs work in the community and are the gaetway to other health services. GPs are often the first people to identify possible abuse when a child attends surgery. Probation Services: Help and support people convicted of some offences to be rehabilitated into the community. They have a key role in monitoring the people convicted of offences against children and should ensure they do not pose a threat to local children. Police: The police are involved in criminal proceedings that may result from safeguarding issues. Child Psychology Services: These will often be needed to support children who have experienced abuse or harm. As all children should be in education or training between the ages of 5 and 18, schools and training organisations are also key to identifying and supporting children that are in need of help. All members of staff should be well trained in safeguarding and child protection. 3 Understand the importance of ensuring children and young people’s safety and protection in the work place . 1 As it can be difficult for many parents to leave their child, it is important that they are confident their child is in a safe environment with people who can be trusted and will see to their Childs needs and help them with their developments. It is also important that a child is made to feel safe and comfortable in a environment or setting in order for them to develop. A child needs to feel happy an d confident in the hands of their carers. 3. 2 Working in and open environment is one way of protecting children and young people as well as the adult caring for them. For example, a nursery that is open plan ensures that at no point will a adult and child be totally alone together. By talking and listening to a child you can learn a lot and May sometimes hear things that give you a reason to be concerned. Avoid agreeing to share a secret with a child when a safeguarding issue is involved. Any concerns over a child’s welfare must be reported and made a record of. When you are involved in the care of children or young people, you are in a position of trust. You have the authority over the children or a young person which gives you responsibility. All people in this position must have enhanced CRB checks. The position you are in tends to be respected and looked up to by many children and young people. Therefore, your own behaviour must be thought about carefully as you are setting an example to these people. Young children need physical contact but too much can quite easily be misunderstood. After a fall, a child may need that cuddle and reassurance to get them up and playing again but if viewed in the wrong way a job and reputation could be at stake. Performing intimate personal care for a child are part of everyday needs but they should never be performed in a room with the door closed or out of sight of other members of staff. This protects the child as well as yourself. Be taking photos or making video recordings can be a great way to let parents see the progression of their child but there are certain rules to followed to ensure the safety of the child -Photos and videos should only be made available to the parents and carers. -Consent forms should be signed and returned -Policies on parents taking photos should be checked . 3 If I feel a colleague is not following the correct safeguarding procedure or the I feel they are harming, abusing or bullying a child or young person in the setting I should immediately speak to my manager and ‘blow the whistle’ as the child at risk is the most important person. If there is any reason I cannot speak to my manager then the other options I have are: Contacting the local soci al services emergency desk Contacting the countries inspectorate Whistle blowing does take some courage as there is the fear of being harassed, bullied or even losing your job as a result. If you lose your job over this matter the UK Public Interest Disclosure Act (1998) offer legal protection. 3. 4 By fully understanding you’re setting policies and procedures at all times will ensure that you can protect yourself from accusations and suspicions. If at any time you are ever in doubt, you should check with your manager who will guide you. 4. Understand how to respond to evidence or concerns that a child or young person has been abused or harmed. 4. 1 There are many different types of abuse such as physical, emotional and sexual abuse also a child being neglected. Signs of physical abuse can be a child having fear of physical contact, flinching when being approached or touched, unexplained recurrent injuries or burns. Physical abuse can also make a child angry and aggresses to themselves and others. Many signs of physical abuse can be confused with every day knocks and bumps but are many signs to look for such as pinch marks on the ears, arms and thigh areas and burn marks. Signs of emotional abuse can be a child with low self-esteem that experiences fear with a new situation, delayed development and a child that is withdrawn and aggressive. Emotional abuse is when a child doesn’t receive love and attention and is put down by carer/parent so makes a child feel they are not good enough with can result in sudden behaviour changes. A child that is being neglected can fail to thrive as they may not be receiving the best care such as proper food, shelter or general care and protection. Coman signs of neglect are poor personal hygiene, a child be constantly drowsy or tired and looking under nourished and thin. A child or young person that is being sexual abuse will have a lack of trust or fear towards someone that know they may be scared or nervous around certain company. They may have a level of sexual knowledge that is not age appropriate. They may also be withdrawn and like to spend time alone rather than socialise with their peers. A physical sign can be continuous medical problems of itching soreness to their genital area. 4. 2 If a child or young person makes an allegation of abuse or harm you should try to have a witness if possible and if it’s ok with the child for someone else to listen. It is important to listen carefully and try not to display that you are shocked or horrified from what your hearing, you should let the child speak and try not o ask direct or leading questions as this could encourage the child to give false information. You should also praise the child and let them know it is the right thing to do and telling someone was right and the main point is to never promise to keep it a secret as this could cause the child further stress and trust issues. Once the child has told you the full story it should be passed over to t he correct person for further investigation. 4. 3 children and young people have the right to receive the best possible help they need to help express themselves fully and it should be explained to them what will happen next. They also have the right and decision not to undergo repeated examinations and questioning about there allegation. Although in some cases it is family members that the allegations are aim at they still have the right to be informed of what’s been said and have a say in the situation. The child has a right to be keep informed about any decisions that may affect there further and the concerns and views should be listen to. 5. Understand how to respond to evidence or concerns that a child or young person has been bullied 5. There are many different types of bully such as physical where a child may be involved in being kicked punched with violent threats this may make a child withdrawn and nervous and generally upset. Not all bulling involves being physically hurt it can be just as distressing for a child to be verbally bullied where they would experience name calling, insults and persistent teasing this can give a child low self-esteem and make them feel worthless and not good en ough. Bullying can also happen and not be received face to face and done though social networking sites and mobile phone. All these types of bullying can leave a child or young person feeling isolated with no one to talk to, in some extreme cases it can lead to depression and even attempted suicide. Bullying can also affect a child education as they may not be able to concentrate and have time of school due to being scared and worried of their bully 5. 2 If there are concerns of bullying in a setting between peers it should be dealt with effinctely to prevent the child or young person being bullied from further pain or distress, all the neseccery people should be involved such as staff members and the parents and family of both the children. All settings should have a anti bullying polices in place to prevent and help cases of bullying. All allegations of bullying should be recorded so it can be picked up if the is a recurrent problem involving the same individuals. The department for education is clear the no form of bullying should be tolerated and all allegations should be taken seriously. Bullying it not a healthy and normal part of growing up. 5. It take a child a lot of courage to confide in someone about being bullied so it is important to let them know that there allegation will be taken seriously and reassure them and their family that the information given will be handed to the right person authority and dealt with in the best possible way. Parents of children being bullied and children that are bullying others also struggle to come to terms with the news and need you full support and help to deal with the situation. You can also give the child details of websites and support line that will offer someone to talk to and extra support for them. 6. Understanding how to work with children and young people to support their safety and wellbeing. 6. 1 It is important for a child to be confidant and have high self-esteem in order for them to thieve and develop ways to boost child self-esteem is to give them lots of praise and encouragement to make them independent with opportunities and choices. Encouraging cooperation, respect and tolerance between children and setting them a positive example to follow and learn from. Teaching children to be assertive having their own needs meet but still respecting other feeling and need. 6. 2 It is important to support resilience in children and young people has it helps them deal with life’s ups and downs. It helps them deal with stressful situations and to cope with change and uncertainty. The more resilience a child or young person has the better they will deal with life as they grow and develop into adulthood. There are many factors that can positively affect Childs resilience: †¢Secure early attachments †¢Confidence of being loved by family and friends †¢Good sense of self identity †¢Confidence to try new things Children that do not tick all the factors may need more help to improve their resilience and boost their self-esteem. 6. 3 children and young people need to have strategy to protect them so they are able to access risks and enable them to make decisions about their own safety. There are many ways children can be supported to keep themselves safe. It is important that they are taught about dangers; such as using outdoor equipment that may have higher risks of danger and the dangers involved in substances. I feel it is also important that a child is made aware that not all adults are safe to approach and should be taught to beware of strangers. A child should never have to feel scared or uncomfortable about someone they are with or something being done to them. 6. everyone working with children needs to support them to help them keep safe and help to support their own well being this can be achieved by helping them to understand boundaries by reinforcing issues when they arise in a positive manner such as taking turns, no pushing, being patient, understanding some children take more time than others to complete tasks, everyone has their own individual ways of completing tasks, letting them resolve their own conflicts when possible. Promote positive relations hips whether child to child, child to adult, adult to adult or adult to child. Let them lead their own activity without guided instructions to let them see what needs to be done and how they can achieve this. We all learn by taking risks so when a child wants to take a risk, be there to help them and support them, whether it be physically (e. g. Supporting them whilst they go down a climbing frame backwards by being there ready to catch them if needed or adjust their positioning of arms or legs ect,) or verbally (encourage them that they can do it and offer them support in doing what they would like to achieve). Never let a child take a risk that could cause significant harm to themselves or others.

The rate of rReaction Essay Example for Free

The rate of rReaction Essay These results also support my prediction and I believe that the collision theory is quite accurate even though it is only a theory as it gives a very good explanation of what should happen and it has happened in my experiment. I am going to include 0. 25M in my main experiment as I believe that this will give a better range of results and also increase the accuracy of my results. I will keep the amount of time the same as I believe it was the best amount of time to get an accurate reading. I will do my main experiment results to one decimal place as I believe that this will give me the most precise results. When reading the amount of gas in the cylinder I will take any number that is whole e. g. 14 to be 14. 0. To improve my reliability I will repeat each concentration three times as I believe this will give me a reliable average. Results Table Results To Show How Much Gas Is Given Off In 5 Minutes Volume of Gas Collected (cm ) Time in minutes Test Concentration Test Any number highlighted are not counted in the average as I believe that the are either to high, to low or do not fit into the pattern. Result that I believe is causing the results for this time to be inaccurate. ( see level of confidence) I will not include this result in my new average. I have found out that 2M is the best strength of hydrochloric acid to use when you want a fast reaction, as it released the most gas in 5 minutes compared to 0.5M, 1M and 1. 5M. I can make the statement the stronger/higher molar(M) the acid the faster the reaction and the weaker/lower molar(M) the acid the slower the reaction. Conclusion I conclude 2M is the best concentration of acid. You can see this on my graph, my graph shows that 2M is the best concentration of acid out of all the ones that I tested as it had the quickest reaction time compared to all of the other concentrations. You can see this from the graph as 2M has got the steepest slope. I believe that the activation energy (see background information for detailed explanation) has effected my results. I believe that the concentration of the acid makes it easier for the particles to react. But what does this have to do with the activation energy? Each molecule has a certain amount of energy and for the molecule to react it must collide with another molecule. It must also generate more energy that it already has. In a low concentrated solution, there are less molecules so it hard for a molecule to find other molecules to collide with, but in a high concentrated solution collisions are more frequent and even if the molecule does not collide with enough energy to react it will soon hit another molecule and have a high possibility of reacting. I predicted that the 2. 0 molar acid would have the quickest reaction time and the 0. 25 molar would have the slowest reaction time I also said that the other concentrations would go in order of their concentrations, the higher the concentration the more gas there will be released and the lower the concentration the less gas there will be released. I believe my predictions were accurate as I based them on the collision theory and even though it is a theory I believe it is an accurate theory and explains what is believed to happen when reactions take place very well. 0. 5M and 1M start off wrong in my opinion as until 3 minutes 0. 5M had released more gas where as I believe according to the collision theory 1M should have released more gas and reacted faster, but in the end 1M released more gas. This also happened in the first 30 seconds of the 0. 25M where it also released more gas than the 1M. This leads me to believe that the 1M may have been the wrong concentration. It is because of this reason I am going to work out the confidence levels for my results. I will take 0 as 100% accurate and 100 as 0% accurate. Level Of Confidence I am going to work out the inaccuracy of my results I will do this by doing the sum Range multiplied by 100= level of inaccuracy Average I have chosen to do the inaccuracy of time   as I believe that I can get a good reading of how inaccurate my results are by doing a selected number of times. Time Concentration Range of gas Average Amount of Times Equals (minutes) of acid(M) released(cm ) gas released(cm ). I am going to look at   my results table and 1 Level of confidence for sum that I believed was inaccurate I have now changed the range of the gas released at 4. 5 minutes.   This inaccuracy level is a lot lower than the other one. This means that that volume of gas released was to low, many things could have caused this . e. g. the temperature of the room could have been lower than when I did the other two experiments. Evaluation I believe my results are quite accurate and would be considered reliable as non of my results have a high inaccuracy level or have a 50% chance of being wrong. I have highlighted the results that I believe are wrong on my results table and have not included them in my averages. On my graph my points go up in curves or in some sort of curve. I have joined all of the point on my graph together but on some of my curves I have done a curve of best fit, I have done this because it will show me if any results are slightly wrong. If you look at the green curve for 0. 5M you will see that the points at 2 and 2. 5 minutes look slightly to high, the curve of best fit shows where the points should have been. The trend I see from the graph is that the higher the concentration of the hydrochloric acid the steeper the slop of the graph is. I believe that the way in which I carried out my experiment was good as I followed my method exactly. To improve the accuracy of my method I could have said I would use a bulb pipette or a graduate pipette as these are more accurate than a measuring cylinder, I could make sure that the marble chips all have the same surface area because the marble chips with the bigger surface areas could have reacted more than the marble chips with the smaller surface areas. I could have also make sure that the room was the same temperature for each experiment because if the room was hot for one experiment and cold for another then the results would be inaccurate as the molecules would have been moving and reacting at different speeds. The results I have support my conclusion and my prediction, as what I predicted would happen did happen. The order of the concentrations for the most gas released in 5 minutes was also accurate, as it was in the order that I predicted. To extend my investigation I could test if the temperature had any effect on the amount of gas released, I believe this would provide me with the relevant information about what the optimum temperature is for a reaction to take place. I could then test the optimum concentration and the optimum temperature together and see how much gas is released in 5 minutes and compare it to the separate results of the concentration and temperature. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Patterns of Behaviour section.

Challenges That Face Democracy In Malaysia Politics Essay

Challenges That Face Democracy In Malaysia Politics Essay The basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled in society are the essential of human dignity. The rights of human cannot replace nor can be against each other. Socialists protect the rights of Malaysia citizen and protect individual safety, freedom of belief, free expression of opinion, and freedom of association and protection from torment and humiliation. Socialists are devoted to achieving freedom from hunger and wants from Malaysia citizen, actual community security and the rights to work. The countrywide struggles for democratic socialism for the years revealed differences in policy and difference on legislative provisions. These reflect the different histories and pluralism of diverse societies. Socialists do not possess the proposal for a fixed and decisive society, which cannot be changed, reformed or supplementary developed. Solidarity is the influential weapon in the struggle against unkindness and unfairness and it embraces all the citizen in Malaysia. Equality is the precondition of free development of personality. It does not mean regularity and levelling out, but opposition against exploitation and against the rights of those controlling economic and political authority. There must be equal rights and opportunities for the different cultures within each society as well as equal right to use for everyone in Malaysia. Democratic socialism uphold the authority to rule and anxiety for the well-being of people of all classes, the right to a civilized and hygienic environment, the right to inclusive education and training, as well as the ability to contribute in administration and all decision-making processes. Democratic party Malaysia Around 50 years ago, Malaysia began practising parliamentary democracy when the first post-independence general election was held in 1959. An important aspect of the democratic system is elections. Elections in the practice of democracy constitute a social contract between the people and the candidate or party that succeeds to form a government. Barisan National (coalition) United Malays National Organization The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu in Malay, is the largest political party in Malaysia and a founding member of the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has ruled the country uninterrupted since independence. After the British returned to Malaya in the aftermath of World War II, the independence movement started to take wing to oppose the British plan of a Malayan Union. A series of Malay congresses were held, culminating in the formation of UMNO on May 11, 1946 at the Third Malay Congress in Johor Bahru, with Datuk Onn Jaafar at its head. However, membership in UMNO was and continues to be limited to members of the Malay (bumiputra) race, and Onn Jaafars attempt to change this policy and the partys name into the United Malaya National Organisation was rejected in 1951. Onn Jaafar resigned in protest, but his role was taken up by Tunku Abdul Rahman who steered the country to independence in 1957. Malaysian Chinese Association The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) is a political party in Malaysia, made up of Malaysian Chinese and one of the three major parties that make up the ruling Barisan Nasional, or National Front. Along with the larger UMNO and the smaller Malaysian Indian Congress, the MCA has a heavy influence on the politics of the country. Through its holding company Huaren Holdings, the MCA also controls five significant newspapers: The Star, Malaysias best-selling English newspaper; Sin Chew Jit Poh, the best-selling Chinese newspaper; and smaller Chinese dailies China Press, Nanyang Siang Pau, and Guang Ming. The Malaysian Chinese Association was formed on 27 Feb 1949 with Sir Tun Tan Cheng Lock as the inaugural President. The MCA is form to safeguard democracy and freedom of the citizen in Malaysia safeguard the legitimate rights of the Chinese community. The party desire to strive for equal status for all races in the country and uphold social justice. In addition, MCA is to promote racial harmony and national unity and national economic and social development Malaysian Indian Congress The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) is one of the oldest political parties of Malaysia, established in August 1946. It was established in the cause of the continuing struggle of the inter-war tears, to end British Colonial rule, as well as in the require for representation on behalf of Indian Community in the post war development of the country. Its founder President was John A. Thivy (1946-1947). The Party was committed to the attainment of freedom and democracy for the country. Besides that, MIC desires to build a positive inter-racial harmony and cooperation. General prosperity and stability of the country and a fair share for the Indian community in the future of the country also the attainment that MIC want to accomplish. Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia was founded in 1968. Since then, the party have been growing from strength to strength despite external constraints and internal problems. Through sincere leadership, practical strategies and non-communal approaches, the party have been successful in obtaining support to strive for a democratic united Malaysia characterized by racial harmony, social justice, economic equality, political democracy and cultural liberalism. As a relatively young party, the party has encountered moments of triumph and suffering in the struggle. The current leader of Gerakan is Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon who won the post of President uncontested in the 2008 party elections. As of 2006[update], about 80% of Gerakans members are ethnic Chinese, another 15% are Indian, and the rest are Malays or other races. The PGRM have been complimented as well as criticized. But all the same, the party never faltered in faith. Integrity and ability have again and again been proven through deeds and words, both internal and outside the government sphere. The receptivity to peoples criticism and advice, and sensitivity to the citizen needs and aspirations are the two major elements that make the party a dynamic and resilient political force in the national arena. The party suffered its worst electoral defeat in the 2008 General Election, which saw the party retaining only two parliament seats, compared to the 10 seats it had before the election. As a result, the party lost its only cabinet post in the ensuing cabinet shuffle. In addition, Gerakan also lost power in Penang after governing the state for almost 39 years. Liberal Democratic Party (Malaysia) The Liberal Democratic Party is a Chinese political party originally founded in the town of Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia by Hiew Min Kong in 1989. The party is considered a minor political party in Malaysia, having its base mainly in Sabah. Its sole parliamentary seat in the Dewan Rakyat is the Sandakan seat which was won by the partys president, Liew Vui Keong in the 2008 General Elections under the Barisan Nasional ticket. The objectives of Liberal Democratic Party Sabah are to honour and protect the Constitution of Malaysia and to uphold the principles of the Rukun Negara. To strive for and establish a fair and equal society regardless of racial origin or belief and to inspire into the people the spirit of mutual respect, tolerance and friendliness in a multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious society. LDP wish to eliminate corruption in all forms in the Government and to ensure the establishment of a government fully accountable to the people. LDP safeguard the interests of Sabah within the context of Malaysia and co-operate with other political organisations with similar aims and objectives on a Malaysian basis in joint political activities. Top of Form Barisan Alternatif (coalition) Democratic Action Party The DAP or Democratic Action Party was founded on 18th March 1966. Using its symbol of the Rocket, the DAP had contested in 10 general elections from 1969 to 2008. The vision of the party is to create a peaceful and successful social democracy that can unite the different races and diverse religions and cultures based on a Malaysian Malaysia concept by forging Malaysian race with universal moral values and offering equal rights and opportunity. The party is democratic governance and rule of law and creating wealth and distributing wealth equitably. The party is fighting against corruption as well The DAP is committed to the fight for a free, democratic socialist Malaysian Malaysia, based on the principles of human rights, equality, social and economic justice, and founded on the institution of parliamentary democracy. As democratic socialists or social democrats, the party is desire a social environment whereby there can be liberated development of the human personality within the community. As a member of Socialist International (SI), DAP is one with democratic socialists or social democrats throughout the world fighting for the cause of humanity and social democracy. DAP is in solidarity with oppressed peoples who oppose unjust wars and production of weapons for war and who advocate peace and prosperity based on equal co-operation aided by scientific knowledge and technical advancement. Early electoral successes and related events The DAP contested a general election for the first time in 1969. In line with their commitment to equality, the DAP originally campaigned against Bumiputra privileges, such as those afforded to them by Article 153 of the Constitution. Article 153 is one of the most controversial articles in the Malaysian constitution. Critics consider it to create an unnecessary and racialist distinction between Malaysians of different ethnic backgrounds, because it has led to the implementation of affirmative action policies which only benefit the Bumiputra, who comprise a majority of the population. They also continued Lee Kuan Yews campaign for a Malaysian Malaysia, the idea of which was originally conveyed by Lee in Parliament: Malaysia to whom does it belong? To Malaysians. But who are Malaysians? I hope I am, Mr Speaker, Sir. But sometimes, sitting in this chamber, I doubt whether I am allowed to be a Malaysian. The DAP went on to win 13 Parliamentary seats and 31 State Assembly seats, with 11.9% of all valid votes that were cast in the election; the Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan) which campaigned on a similar platform also made major gains. The 1969 election marked the biggest gains ever made by an opposition party in Malaysia (before 2008), and came close to seeing the ruling Alliance toppled from power. However, a march made by the DAP along with Gerakan as part of the opposition team led to violence, and resulted in what was euphemistically termed the May 13 Incident. Parliament was suspended for two years, and the executive branch of the government assumed power. When Parliament reconvened, it passed pieces of legislation such as the Sedition Act that illegalised discussion of repealing certain portions of the Constitution. Most of these concerned Bumiputra privileges, such as Article 153. The DAP and the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) were the only parties that voted against the Act, which passed by a vote of 125 to 17. After the 1969 election, the DAP would never come close to repeating its past successes for the next 38 years. Although the DAP remained a major opposition party, the ruling coalition had clung solidly to its two-thirds parliamentary majority. The DAP, however, continued campaigning on its platform of abolishing the Bumiputra privileges, giving equal rights for all Malaysians regardless of race and establishing a democratic socialist state in Malaysia. During the Mahathir administration in 1987, several DAP leaders, including Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, were detained by the government without trial during Operation Lalang, under the accusation of being a national security threat. It is widely believed they were arrested for protesting the expansion of the New Economic Policy (NEP). KeADILan The Peoples Justice Party of Malaysia (KeADILan) is the only multi-racial, multi-ethnic political party in Malaysia calling for widespread political reform and advocating for social justice for all Malaysians.   KeADILan believes good governance and accountability of public servants is the cornerstone of the Malaysian democracy and as such has been outspoken against the excesses of the current government, which is seen to be beholden to special interests and cronyism.   Borne in the upheaval of the 1998 movement known as Reformasi, the National Justice Party (NJP) headed by Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the wife of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, captured five seats in Parliament solidifying the young partys role in national politics. In 2003 the NJP merged with the Malaysian Peoples Party to form the Peoples Justice Party, still headed by Dr. Wan Azizah. A true reflection of Malaysias multi-ethnic population, KeADILans ranks are filled with Malays, Indians and Chinese dedicated to building a prosperous Malaysia wedded to the principles of freedom and democracy.   KeADILan is dedicated to overcoming generations of race-based politics which have prevented Malaysia from realizing its potential as a diverse society.   This year KeADILan has experienced a surge in popularity under the leadership of Anwar Ibrahim and in light of widespread public dissatisfaction with the current Malaysian government.   General elections are anticipated in 2008 and KeADILan is slated to make substantial gains at the polls. Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party commonly known as PAS or Pas, is an Islamist political party in Malaysia and is currently headed by Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang. PAS positions itself as a political party that aims to establish Malaysia as a country based on Islamic legal theory derived from the primary sources of Islam, the Quran, Sunnah as well as Hadiths, as opposed to Barisan Nasionals Islam Hadhari, which PAS sees as based on a watered-down understanding of Islam. The party enjoys strong support from the northern rural and conservative states such as Kelantan and Terengganu. It is also the first opposition party in independent Malaysias history to defeat the Barisan Nasional coalition in a Malay dominated state. PAS, together with Parti KeADILan Rakyat (known as PKR), and Democratic Action Party (known as DAP) formed part of a coalition called Pakatan Rakyat following the 2008 election. Together, Pakatan Rakyat now controls four states in Malaysia which are Kelantan, Kedah, Selangor and Penang. Criticisms towards UMNO-led Barisan National government PAS often opposed and criticised the Barisan Nasional coalition. However, for a brief period from 1973 to 1978, under the leadership of Asri Muda, PAS was brought into the BN fold.The Islamic opposition party often alleges that the economic and social problems of Malaysians and Malay-Muslims are the fault of the UMNO-dominated Barisan Nasional federal government in Kuala Lumpur. PAS claims that after independence, social problems such as drugs, corruption and promiscuity have increased and blames the UMNO-led government for allowing these problems to arise. PAS is of the view that its leadership can overcome these perceived problems for the benefit of the Muslim and non-Muslim electorate alike by establishing an Islamic state. Pakatan Rakyat Pakatan Rakyat or PR (English: Peoples Pact / Peoples Alliance) is an informal Malaysian political coalition formed on April 1, 2008. The political coalition comprises a group of Malaysian political parties, namely, the Peoples Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP), and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), who collectively worked together in what was colloquially called the Barisan Rakyat (Peoples Front) during the 12th Malaysian general election in 2008. In the 10th General Election, they had formed the Barisan Alternatif (Alternative Front). Each political party in Peoples Alliance has its own ideology; PKR promotes its ideals that revolve around social justice and anti-corruption themes, PAS with its aim to establish Malaysia as a nation based on Islamic legal theory and DAP with its secular, multi-racial, social democratic ideals. Pakatan Rakyat is to be collectively led and managed, by all three parties and pledges to uphold the rights and interests of all Malaysians. With the establishment of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, the state governments of Kelantan, Kedah, Penang and Selangor are known as the Pakatan Rakyat state governments.