buy custom Value Added essay

buy custom Value Added essay Value added is an important element in a company since it is instrumental in measuring the wealth created by a company which can in turn be used to analyze the contribution of the company to the economy of its country. According to Cox (1979), value added is defined as the wealth the reporting entity has been able to create by its own and its employees efforts. In Simple terms, value added is the difference between sales and the cost of purchasing goods or bought-in-goods and services. Two approaches are used to calculate value added. The first methodology is by simply subtracting the purchases from the sales or turnover based on the definition of value added. This means that Value Added = Sales Purchases or Bought-in-good. Furthermore, value added can be looked at as a net figure that presents the value an individual, industry or company and contributes to the goods it has purchased. Therefore, value added can be calculated through the method of addition. This means that Value Added = Operating Profit + Labor Costs + Depreciation. It can be calculated through the addition of employee costs, operating profit, amortization/impairment of charges and depreciation even though company accounts do not always provide the cost of boght-in-items. The above quantities that cumulatively constitute value added are calculated and defined as follows (Department for Business Innovation and Skills, 2010): Employee costs- This is the total amount of money paid to an employee including social security, death benefit plans, pension wages and salaries. Operating profit- This is the measuring of a companys ability to earn from day-today operations and is equal to pre-deduction of income taxes and interest payments of earnings. Amortization/impairment- This is the impairment of goodwill, depreciation of capitalized development and impairment/amortization of other intangibles. Depreciation- This is the impairment charges on assets held under finance leases and owned assets. Link between value added, profit and cash flow As much as value added is the best indicator of a companys wealth, the success of the company may also be contingent to the profitability of the business entity. A strong correlation between the performance of a companys sales and its profit exist. For instannce, a company making profit may be recording a good sales performance in that they are selling the quantity of goods that they intended to or even surpassing their prospects. However, it is imperative to note that the profitability of the company in question does not translate to an increase in the sales. A wholesalers pricing of goods to the company may be very good. The company will in turn gives the goods a market value that ensures profit but does but not sell the expected quantity of goods. On the other hand, the inability of a company to make profit would result into a loss thus affecting the performance of sales. This loss may be contributed by a lack of a company selling the intended quantity of goods thus interfering with the prospects of value added. Moreover, cash flow is another aspect that is correlated with the sales performance. It is defined as a record of a companys income and expenditure. Cash flow is vital for the success of business in that the if a company had a good sales performance, their cash inflow will be higher thus boosting the sales performance. This may eventually result into the value addition of the company. On the contrary, a company that records a low amount of sales will add little money to the cash flow hence limiting the chances of profitability and value addition Buy custom Value Added essay

The Bad Old Days - Porridge

The Bad Old Days - Porridge From the Hoax: In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while -hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. The Facts In peasant cottages, there was no kitchen in which to cook. The poorest families had only one room where they cooked, ate, worked, and slept. It is also possible that most of these extremely poor families owned only one kettle. Poor town-dwellers usually didnt even have that, and obtained most of their meals ready-made from shops and street vendors in the Medieval version of fast-food.1 Those who lived on the edge of starvation had to make use of every edible item they could find, and just about everything could go into the pot (often a footed kettle that rested in the fire rather than over it) for the evening meal.2 This included beans, grains, vegetables, and sometimes meat often bacon. Using a little meat in this manner would make it go further as sustenance. The resulting stew was called pottage, and it was the basic element of the peasant diet. And yes, sometimes the remains of one days cooking would be used in the next days fare. (This is true in some modern peasant stew recipes.) But it was not common for food to remain there for nine days or for more than two or three days, for that matter. People living on the edge of starvation were not likely to leave food on their plates or in the pot. Contaminating the carefully-gathered ingredients of a nights supper with rotting nine-day-old remains, thus risking illness, is even more unlikely. What is likely is that leftovers from the evening meal were incorporated into a breakfast that would sustain the hard-working peasant family for much of the day. We have not been able to discover the origin of the peas porridge hot rhyme. It is unlikely to spring from 16th-century life since, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word porridge did not come into use until the 17th century. Addendum: Lauren Henry writes: A source is The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, edited by Iona and Peter Opie, published by Oxford University Press, 1997, pages 406-409. According to that, the rhyme made fun of a hawkers cry at Bartholomews Fair in the 18th century, documented in a description written by G.A. Stevens in 1762. Notes 1. Carlin, Martha, Fast Food and Urban Living Standards in Medieval England, in Carlin, Martha, and Rosenthal, Joel T., eds., Food and Eating in Medieval Europe (The Hambledon Press, 1998), pp. 27-51. 2. Gies, Frances Gies, Joseph, Life in a Medieval Village (HarperPerennial, 1991), p. 96. The text of this document is copyright  ©2005 Melissa Snell. You may download or print this document for personal or school use, as long as the URL below is included. Permission is  not  granted to reproduce this document on another website. The URL for this document is: www.thoughtco.com/porridge-in-medieval-times-1788710

How national culture relates to marketing strategy Essay

How national culture relates to marketing strategy - Essay Example From this research it is clear that numerous authors have studied various market theories and models with respect to national cultural effects. Their works looked at the specifics of marketing tasks to culture (micromarketing view) and the marketing concept to culture (macro marketing view). However, there are no significant works on the view between the micromarketing and the macromarketing in which the realm of marketing strategy falls. One reason for this is that it is typically a more difficult area to study. Each type of business dictates a different marketing strategy. It is easier to study very specific items, such as culture to product development, or culture to product choice. Or study very broad topics, such as national culture to market orientation. However, the study of marketing strategy is between the micro and macro marketing views making it difficult to develop theories that are testable. Overall marketing strategy is too broad to practically study, yet not homogeneou s enough to relate to as a whole. Therefore, to study this area requires the creation of artificial boundaries.Since it is such a difficult area to study authors have not published any significant research that may lead to a better understanding of why businesses have failed in their international efforts. Moreover, there is still debate among the academic community concerning the relevance of national culture in regards to customization versus standardization of products and marketing efforts.

General Factor of Creativity Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

General Factor of Creativity - Assignment Example Biofeedback, or self-consciousness learning from and simultaneously influencing the environment, is an important structural model for my decision making and the day to day activities of awareness. I find I have to accept mistakes as a given in any undertaking but repeatedly refine and re-focus the will to attain goals that are based in the ideals and beliefs of the highest good and intended to benefit the evolution of human consciousness. (diCarlo, 2010) Activity is only one dimension of the self in my philosophy of creativity, but it is through the creative process that what is lasting and memorable will be achieved in life. Nevertheless, I feel activity should be based on an altruistic motivation to help and assist others in all manners of living, valuing what is shared in a manner equal if not more precious than what is packaged and sold. The balancing of competing interests and maintaining a consistent philosophy, free of hypocrisy, with its own interpretation and application is the key to establishing an identity in works of art or literature born out of the creative process. ... velopment, I believe the personality must come into tune or harmony with the creative spirit and become effortless self-expression in order to be successful. Personality cannot be considered determinant of creativity, for the creative spirit takes force across all personality types. An excellent review of scientific literature on the subject is available in Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic’s Personality and Individual Differences (2007). I find too much in technique in art is equivalent to other forms of overbearing social life and communication, and from this the importance of balance in mind and awareness is made evident. Nevertheless, across all of the moods in my personality, I believe there may be also shared patterns of behavior or thinking that can facilitate creativity by sparking new ideas, critical approaches, or methodologies. Artists and musicians, as well as scientists, generally learn synergetically through combining multiple influences and traditions into a new and uniqu e form at the highest levels of creativity. In this regard, I believe creativity can become related very closely to spirituality in personal self-expression. According to Jungian psychology, as the mind and awareness becomes conscious of more universal themes, the self-expression of the personality on all levels can be expected to change in accordance with this. (Rothgeb, 1992) In this manner, creativity and personality are essentially the same force of self-expression to me, acting across multimedia and other forms of communication or relationship. The open, balanced and conscience-aware personality that is based in altruistic generosity seems the best ideal to for me to strive for in personal relationships, but the subject matter of the subconscious and conscious struggles based on ideals and

The death penalty Essay Example for Free

The death penalty Essay During act1 the play starts were a group of people in Salem go dancing in the woods with a slave woman called Tituba, Reverrand Parris sees this but is spotted doing so, the girls run away.  The next day reverrand Parris is beside Betty who is ill, the doctor suspects the girl has been taken over by supernatural forces. Parris questions Abigail, who was with her, he asks her about witchcraft and Tituba, he then sends for reverrand Hale, an authority on witchcraft. Mr Mrs Putnam see how Betty is and says that she sent her daughter Ruth to raise spirits of her dead babies to see who murdered them so that is another reason for the happenings in the woods that night. Later the girls who were dancing in the woods joined Betty beside her bedside, theyre all woried that they may be tried for witchraft. Abigail has them on their own, she slaps Betty to try to sustain her, she also worns the other girls not to breath a word of when she drank blood in the woods, she uses scare tactics. Abigail and Proctor starts talking about their affair and their affections for each other, while Betty is next to them in bed hearing every word they say, Betty then screams to stop them. Parris, Rebbecca, and Giles come to see whats happened with Betty, Rebbecca manages to restrain her. Parris wants to have a witch hunt, but proctor doesnt believe in witches, they start to argue. The Putnams continue to disagree with the rest of the towns people of Salem about land rights, which creates a lot of tension.  Reverrand Hale tries to wake Betty but doesnt succeed, he then turns to Abigail questions her about the witchery, in hesitation shes quick to accuse Tituba. She accuses two others, realises Titubas escape by naming others, she chants the names of the other girls in the villiage that she believes has seen the devil, Hale is pleased shes confessed and tells her to continue talking. Crucible: A melting pot where basic elements are mixed together to give an explosive force.  This is the title of the play, I think this title is very fitting with the contents of the play, it seems to be like when the characters (basic elements) are put together, they produce arguments, action, tension, fear(explosive force).  Arthur Millers background He was born in New York, 17th October 1915, he was brought up in the brooklyn area. His father owned a clothing factor which collapsed, following this lead Arthur Miller to produce the play Death of a salesman and A view from a bridge set in Brooklyn. During his college years he managed to write plays although he had college and other jobs at the same time.  His first success was All my sons which was about a father forced to realise dangerous moral comprimises changing the American dream of wealth. His biggest hit was Death of a salesman in 1949 which won the Pulitzer Prize. The crucible won an award in 1953, but wasnt an immediate commercial success, this was the time of Mc Carthyism. Mc Carthyism is an issue in which to consider in the play, with Salem being a very theocratic society. In the arrly 1950s Joseph McCarthy, a senator, managed to create a national campaign against communists, ex-communists and anyone who assoiated with them. He made many unfounded statements about the numbers of secret communists in important positions, as chairman of a senate commitee he interrogated many witnesses and tried to make them inform on friends and colleagues. As the anti-communist hysteria increased many people were hounded from their jobs or were prevented from working. McCarthys unproven accusations and aggresive interrogations gradually brought him into disrepute. Witchcraft is an important scene in which act 1 is dramatic, witchcraft was a serious matter in those days, and even more in a religious community. Witchery led to deaths, fall outs, false accusations, murders, tortures, exectutions, being burnt etc which if used in the play, which it was, it can be used to build extreme dramatic situations which can have a powerful effect on the audience. Witches were thaught to be in league with the devil, who was their master, the devil/satan is believed to roam the world for human souls to tempt into hell. He is a supreme enemy of everything thats good and holy. The Christian churches persued and persicuted supposed witches. A common test for a person accused for being a witch was pricking with a needle. All witches were supposed to have somewhere on their bodies, a mark made by the devil himself which was insensitive to pain. Any who were found guilty suffered the death penalty. Whichcraft trials in Salem were common, I think Arthur Miller used it in his play to worry the audience into thinking death was appartant and inevitable, when witchery was present. Whenever death is present in a play, the dramatic tension is bound to rise because death is a most serious matter to anyone. If ever witchery or satanic happenings occured in Salem, it would most probably be taken to court until someone was proven guilty and hanged, maybe Arthur Miller knew this and thaught that the audience would know it too? therefore rising the dramatic tension in the play.

NYLON Essay examples -- essays research papers

An incredible event happened in the 1930 ¡Ã‚ ¯s that has changed lives ever since. That event, the creation of nylon, has manipulated the way people dress and live their everyday lives. It even provided more employment opportunities and job improvements throughout the years. A team of DuPont researchers, led by Dr. Wallace Hume Carothers, invented the first synthetic material, nylon, in 1934 (Adams 21). They were searching for an artificial replacement for silk when they drew out an elastic string from plastic, creating nylon. There are two popular ways of creating nylon for fiber applications. One,  ¡Ã‚ °molecules with an acid (COOH) group on each end are reacted with molecules containing amine (NH ©Ãƒ ¼) groups on each end. ¡Ã‚ ± The nylon 6,6 is made in this fashion. The other common way of making nylon fibers is by polymerizing a compound containing an amine at one end and an acid at the other, to form a chain with reoccurring groups of (-NH-[CH ©Ãƒ ¼]n-CO-)x. If the x=5, the fiber is named nylon 6 (Nylon Fiber). This new invention had many better qualities and/or abilities than any other material in use already. Nylons are mostly known for their abilities to be dyed, to be unharmed by many kinds of household cleaning products or greases and oils, its rapid drying time, and above all, its silk-like appearance (The World Book). Nylons ¡Ã‚ ¯ tensile strength is greater than that of cottons, rayon, silk, and wool (Encarta). They also have characteristics that include elasticity, easy to clean,...

Don Benito Cereno: No Future without the Past

A. P. English September 22, 2012 No Future Without the Past By: Bernice Mojica â€Å"But the past is past; why moralize upon it? Forget it. See, yon bright sun has forgotten it all, and the blue sea, and the blue sky; these have turned over new leaves. † â€Å"Because they have no memory,† he dejectedly replied; â€Å"because they are not human. † â€Å"But these mild trades that now fan your cheek, Don Benito, do they not come with a human-like healing to you? Warm friends, steadfast friends are the trades. â€Å"With their steadfastness they but waft me to my tomb, Senor,† was the foreboding response. â€Å"You are saved, Don Benito,† cried Captain Delano, more and more astonished and pained; â€Å"you are saved; what has cast such a shadow upon you? † â€Å"The Negro. † (pg. 75) -Melville, Herman. Benito Cereno. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. , 1990 Don Benito Cereno’s epiphany over the mistake of underestimating the Neg roes keeps him moralized upon the past, rather than accepting his wrong doings and modifying them into optimistic beneficial accomplishments.To prove that his way of thinking is keeping him from moving on, Captain Delano advices him that, â€Å"the past is past; why moralize upon it? † Delano is letting him know that he can’t hold himself back from a great future based on a rotten past. Although selfishness is looked upon as a sinful thought, pleasing one’s self is still considered a good intention. Delano comforts Cereno by indirectly assuring him that he should never regret what has been done, because during the moment of that action, there was always a reasonable purpose to be followed.Those experiences taught him how to become a better human being; hence, if he didn’t go through any of that, he would not have the current regretful feelings he has at the end of the novel. Delano alludes to Benito that if the world is able to metamorphose, then so can h e; â€Å"See, yon bright sun has forgotten it all, and the blue sea, and the blue sky; these have turned over new leaves. † These are all forms of our dynamic nature which juxtapose Benito’s static character. DonBenito comes to realize that the population he had once tortured is the same as those who have morally and mentally saved him. This is translated when Captain Delano asks him, â€Å"you are saved; what has cast such a shadow upon you? † and Cereno replies that â€Å"the Negro† is what has cast the shadow upon him. The Negroes aboard the San Dominick represent â€Å"blackness†. Therefore, Cereno is implying that blackness is the evil within human nature, which the black ethnic group metaphorically represents.Blackness is a connotation of an actual color, and in this case, it is also the live image of what us humans believe stands for worthlessness and diabolic. This comparison is an oxymoron to what Cereno is referring to. If you recall, Cer eno had stated that he was saved because of this blackness; which I had just mentioned was unholy. This contradiction establishes how there is no future without the past; how you cannot grow without a base to keep yourself standing. There is no need for change if there is nothing destructive keeping you from reaching your goals.Cereno believes he himself was the destructiveness keeping the Negroes from fulfilling their wishes of being able to see their families again. This brings about the empathy that the reader feels towards him in the end. With this passage being at the end of the novel, it clearly exhibits a stable theme for the novel as a whole. Race seems to be the common denominator throughout the story. This is supported by the fact that it was written during the 1850’s; when slavery was most popular.Melville seems to realize that this sort of power over other humans was morally wrong and he did not agree with what was socially acceptable. Our generations have been ta ught that we should never judge a book by its cover, therefore, we should not judge a man by his color. You should never underestimate a man based on what he doesn’t have, but rather estimate his power based on what he does have. Now that Don Benito Cereno comes to terms with the equality of all men, he took the first step into admitting his mistakes and chooses to follow a leader rather than being one.

Brl Hardy Driving Forces to Become a Global Company

What are the driving forces behind BRL Hardy to become a global company? â€Å"A Global company is an organization that attempts to standardize and integrate operations worldwide in all functional areas. † In general, there are multiple Globalization forces; some of them are: * Industrial: get access to a bigger market to sell the product. * Financial: by emerging worldwide, it is easier to borrow money * Political forces: the raising globalization goes along with the decrease of the importance of the state. Companies can set up their headquarter in different countries, in function of the legislation in those countries. * Technological forces: the new discoveries and the fast evolving technology eases the communication and makes it easier to collect information about foreign/other goods. * Market: when companies globalize, they also become global customers. * Cost: By becoming global, companies can benefit from economies of scale. The company can also locate production in countries where production costs are lower. In early times, the wine industry was very little. There were little village labels and the grapes grew on tiny vineyards. Those factors made the wine industry very agricultural i. e. the harvest was very vulnerable to weather and diseases. On the other side, the wine business had very few multinational companies and therefore very few true global brands. This made BRL Hardy think about expanding its business to multiple locations over the world and become one of the world’s first global wine companies. The first company on the market has a big chance to become one of the biggest companies in his sector. By breaking the habit of growing and selling only its own wine, Hardy was able to build the scale necessary for creating strong brands and negotiating with retail stores. In 1882, BRLH won his first international gold medal at Bordeaux. Winning a price creates a certain reputation, which makes it more likely that the wine will sell if the company becomes a global company. Also, the company was Australia’s largest winemaker, and one of the most respected. Next to this, Australian wine was becoming a trend, and the demand from new customers in nontraditional markets grew rapidly. All this were driving forces to become a global company. Sources: http://www. slideshare. net/gugaslide/global-business-presentation http://www. slideshare. net/RealRedOne/harvard-business-school-brl-hardy-globalizing-an-australian-wine-company http://www. businessschoolnetherlands. com/files/bsn-article_marius-leibold_business-model-innovation_1. pdf http://www. andidas. com/academic/lse_coursework/MN498%20-%20Tesco%20Internationalisation_by_andidas. pdf http://scholar. sun. ac. za/bitstream/handle/10019. 1/3328/Ewouba-Biteghe,%20BS. pdf? sequence=1 http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Globalization

Slavery in the USA essays

Slavery in the USA essays Douglas hoped that northerners opposing his bill would quiet down after the bill was settled, but they became more furious Antislavery critics wanted to prevent slavery from gaining a foothold in Kansas Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company was found to help emigrants to settle down in Kansas hundreds of settlers moved to Kansas Alarmed proslavery groups also started to go to Kansas When a territorial legislature was elected in March 1855 over 6000 votes were counted ~ 5000 of these votes were illegal because most Missourians who voted were not residents large number of men who had been elected were proslavery a law was quickly passed authorizing slavery in Kansas! even death penalty was passed for people helping slaves to escape Kansans refused to accept the new legislature and set up an own government at the town of Topeka fighting between these two governments broke out weapons from the East were sent to Kansans Tension between these two parties started to explode when in November 1855 a Kansan were killed by a proslavery man On May 21st, Sheriff Jones, a proslavery, and a proslavery army marched into Lawrence and destroyed two printing presses and burned down several buildings A few days later John Brown and seven other men, took revenge and massacred five people (they split open their skulls and cut off some of their hands) As a result civil war in Kansas broke out ...

Expansionary vs. Contractionary Monetary Policy

Expansionary vs. Contractionary Monetary Policy Students first learning economics often have trouble understanding what contractionary monetary policy and expansionary monetary policy are and why they have the effects they do. Generally speaking contractionary monetary policies and expansionary monetary policies involve changing the level of the money supply in a country. Expansionary monetary policy is simply a policy which expands (increases) the supply of money, whereas contractionary monetary policy contracts (decreases) the supply of a countrys currency. Expansionary Monetary Policy In the United States, when the Federal Open Market Committee wishes to increase the money supply, it can do a combination of three things: Purchase securities on the open market, known as Open Market OperationsLower the Federal Discount RateLower Reserve Requirements These all directly impact the interest rate. When the Fed buys securities on the open market, it causes the price of those securities to rise. In my article on the Dividend Tax Cut, we saw that bond prices and interest rates are inversely related. The Federal Discount Rate is an interest rate, so lowering it is essentially lowering interest rates. If the Fed instead decides to lower reserve requirements, this will cause banks to have an increase in the amount of money they can invest. This causes the price of investments such as bonds to rise, so interest rates must fall. No matter what tool the Fed uses to expand the money supply interest rates will decline and bond prices will rise. Increases in American bond prices will have an effect on the exchange market. Rising American bond prices will cause investors to sell those bonds in exchange for other bonds, such as Canadian ones. So an investor will sell his American bond, exchange his American dollars for Canadian dollars, and buy a Canadian bond. This causes the supply of American dollars on foreign exchange markets to increase and the supply of Canadian dollars on foreign exchange markets to decrease. As shown in my Beginners Guide to Exchange Rates this causes the U.S. Dollar to become less valuable relative to the Canadian Dollar. The lower exchange rate makes American produced goods cheaper in Canada and Canadian produced goods more expensive in America, so exports will increase and imports will decrease causing the balance of trade to increase. When interest rates are lower, the cost of financing capital projects is less. So all else being equal, lower interest rates lead to higher rates of investment. What We've Learned About Expansionary Monetary Policy: Expansionary monetary policy causes an increase in bond prices and a reduction in interest rates.Lower interest rates lead to higher levels of capital investment.The lower interest rates make domestic bonds less attractive, so the demand for domestic bonds falls and the demand for foreign bonds rises.The demand for domestic currency falls and the demand for foreign currency rises, causing a decrease in the exchange rate. (The value of the domestic currency is now lower relative to foreign currencies)A lower exchange rate causes exports to increase, imports to decrease and the balance of trade to increase. Be Sure to Continue to Page 2 Contractionary Monetary Policy Federal Open Market Committee Sell securities on the open market, known as Open Market OperationsRaise the Federal Discount RateRaise Reserve Requirements    What We've Learned About Contractionary Monetary Policy: Contractionary monetary policy causes a decrease in bond prices and an increase in interest rates.Higher interest rates lead to lower levels of capital investment.The higher interest rates make domestic bonds more attractive, so the demand for domestic bonds rises and the demand for foreign bonds falls.The demand for domestic currency rises and the demand for foreign currency falls, causing an increase in the exchange rate. (The value of the domestic currency is now higher relative to foreign currencies)A higher exchange rate causes exports to decrease, imports to increase and the balance of trade to decrease. If youd like to ask a question about contractionary monetary policy, expansionary monetary policy or any other topic or comment on this story, please use the feedback form.

Why its important to have a high school diploma in America Essay

Why its important to have a high school diploma in America - Essay Example The High School Diploma is fundamental towards their understanding of the world around them, the people living in close proximity and almost all issues that surround their lives in entirety. They gain so much when they know that the High School Diploma is within their hands and now would be the time to explore the varied areas of educational disciplines which would be the cornerstone of their success in the years to come (Workman, 2011). The High School Diploma within America is comprehensive from the onset, as it ensures that the student remains on top of his educational realms and is considered the very best amongst his educational circles. It is a fact that an individual must offer top priority to the students who have had a High School Diploma with them as they have to achieve success for the long term. Also the role of the family, friends and peers is filled in a positive manner when a student has had a High School Diploma with him (Byndloss,

Can Abortion be a Morally Acceptable Choice Essay

Can Abortion be a Morally Acceptable Choice - Essay Example The fact that a majority of the people are in fact somewhere between the two positions is often lost in the vitriol of the debate. Pro-life groups state that human life begins at conception, and thus an abortion is the killing of a human being. There are some differences within the pro-life position however. Many people who say they are pro-life agree that abortions should be allowed in the case of incest , rape or to save the woman's life. This seems a somewhat odd position as, if a person believes that human life begins at conception, should it matter how the baby was conceived Is the baby any less human because its father was a rapist Is it any less human because its mother may die because of the pregnancy The answer to both these questions would seem to be 'no'. The two positions have been set out and logic, practically and ethics falls on the side that some abortions are indeed morally acceptable. Perhaps the 'easiest' types of abortion to defend are those in which the mother's life is being saved. These can be defended on a number of bases. First, the practical fact is that if the mother's life is at risk so is the baby's. If the mother dies, the baby will as well. So in this case, even if a person believes that life begins at conception, it is surely better to have a situation in which one person lives and one dies, rather than both dying. Second, the legal principle of 'self-defense' might be applied here. If the baby is a human being, then it (albeit unintentionally) is killing the mother. The mother has a perfect right to defend herself against this attack. The abortion is an example of self-defense. In cases of incest and rape, a less certain ground exists for those who believe life begins at conception. Incest may lead to genetic problems and diseases for generations to come, indeed, this is the reason that incest is taboo in most societies in the world. It seems logical that a pregnancy produced in this way, which might have hazardous effects for generations to come, should be terminated. Rape is a more difficult issue. Here the argument moves into the territory of when a fertilized egg 'becomes human'. An abortion that occurs because the mother is raped essentially falls into the 'choice' category. The pro-choice side says that a woman has the right to self-determination guaranteed by the US Constitution, specifically "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", and that any attempt to tell her what to do with her own body directly contradicts this right. Pro-choice groups maintain that a baby is only a 'human life' when it is able to exist independent of its mother. Thus abortions up until about six months are morally legitimate as until this time the baby cannot survive outside the mother's body. These are not abortions of independent human life but merely medical procedures undertaken by a woman and her doctor, and as such should be no one's business but the individual woman and her doctor. If a person believes the "independent of its mother" of human life then any abortion up until that time is morally justifiable. The question of rape, incest, or saving the mother's life does not come into play because the mother is just having something done to herself. This position essentially