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RE: [pf] Bioethicist Peter Singer Sees Merit in Killing Disabled
by Fitzsimmons, Diane
30 November 2000 20:57 UTC

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I heard an interview with Singer on The Diane Rehm Show this week.

Re: infant euthanasia.  He specifically cited cases in which babies are born
with such terrible defects that they will die (e.g., a baby without a
brain).  At this point, he says, doctors have only the option of letting the
baby slowly die over several days.  He says that babies do feel pain and it
is more cruel to let that child die over several days than to practice
euthanasia.

Re: Nazis.  He had three grandparents who were killed in the Nazi
extermination camps.

Re: euthanasia of the elderly or terminally ill.  Once again, the cases he
cited were where people have terminal illnesses where they are slowly
wasting away or suffering dementia and dying slowly.

Obviously, most caring people can see the merit in his argument but fear
that it's the start down the slippery slope.  Also, all of us fear a
proplonged death of pain.

My mother-in-law died of pancreatic cancer (in 1985, before I met her son,
my husband).  As many of you know, that kind of cancer is basically a death
sentence.  She was 49.  She died slowly at home, in the end needing her most
basic needs to be met by her children.  I don't know if it was
raionalization on my husband's part (he was 21 at the time), but he said her
death -- while painful in an emotional sense -- allowed the family to work
through some things and bond.  When the time came, his mother was "ready."

If good hospice care, including palliative care, is provided, my husband
feels euthanasia robs the dying and their family of a special time together.

On our Christmas tree is a handbell that my mother-in-law used to call her
son (my husband) for help during that time.  It is a special reminder of
her.

Diane Fitzsimmons
Norman, Okla.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Molly Williams [mailto:mmw@waveinter.com]
> Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2000 2:26 PM
> To: twbounds@pop.mail.rcn.net
> Cc: Positive Futures
> Subject: Re: [pf] Bioethicist Peter Singer Sees Merit in Killing
> Disabled
> 
> 
> While I agree with Singer on many things -- including condemning
> McDonald's and most other restaurants (including some where I 
> choose to
> eat) for killing animals to feed humans -- I don't agree that disabled
> and/or old people are any more or less valuable than non-disabled
> people. However, I think what he advocates is only the expression of
> what a lot of people think, taken to extreme, which is why it is so
> shocking to so many. 
> 
> ~ Molly Wms.
> Molly Williams
> Volunteer, Waterboro Public Library: http://web.archive.org/web/20020330173447/http://www.waterboro.lib.me.us/
> Web Maintainer, PROP: http://web.archive.org/web/20020330173447/http://www.propeople.org/ (Portland, ME)
> mmw@waveinter.com
> 
> "If you're feeling overwhelmed, you're doing too much." -- 
> Peace Pilgrim
> 
> 
> Tom Wheeler wrote:
> > 
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 13:37:59 -0500
> > Subject: Bioethicist Peter Singer Sees Merit in Killing Disabled
> > 
> > From:  Vera Hassner Sharav,  President
> > CIRCARE: Citizens for Responsible Care & Research,
> >               A Human Rights Organization
> >              Tel. 212-595-8974    FAX: 212-595-9086
> >              veracare@erols.com
> > 
> > FYI
> > 
> > Bioethicist Peter Singer, who heads Princeton Univeristy's 
> Center for Human
> > Values, is an example of Neo-Eugenics thinking in prominent 
> bioethics
> > circles.
> > 
> > Among other things, Singer writes: "The Nazi euthanasia 
> program was not
> > euthanasia at all."
> > 
> > I guess in bioethics terminology "Human Values" don't apply 
> to people who
> > are being disposed of...
> > 
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > http://web.archive.org/web/20020330173447/http://www.suntimes.com/output/kisor/req27.html
> > 
> > Chicage Sun Times
> > 
> > Activist sees merit in killing disabled
> > 
> > November 27, 2000
> > 
> > BY SABRINA WALTERS STAFF REPORTER
> > 
> > Conservative Christians, Jews and advocates for the 
> disabled are among those
> > who have sought to silence philosopher Peter Singer. But 
> the father of the
> > animal rights movement hasn't stopped talking--and shocking.
> > 
> > Now, Singer, whose 1980 book Animal Liberation is viewed by 
> many as the
> > bible of the animal rights movement, is out with a new 
> book. Writings on an
> > Ethical Life (the ECCO Press, $27.50) compiles some of his most
> > controversial work in a 384-page book.
> > 
> > Among the ideas Singer puts forth:
> > 
> > * The selective killing of disabled infants could be 
> ethically acceptable,
> > even desirable.
> > 
> > * Euthanasia is an acceptable practice for the terminally 
> ill or elderly,
> > especially if their care would drag on society's well-being.
> > 
> > * The life of a chimp or a dolphin has more value than that 
> of a human if
> > the animal is healthy and the human is severely disabled.
> > 
> > Singer started making enemies in the United States from the 
> moment he
> > arrived at Princeton University's Center for Human Values 
> from Australia in
> > 1998. His appointment as a bioethics professor sparked loud 
> protests.
> > 
> > That furor cooled, but Singer keeps throwing himself back 
> into the fray, and
> > his new book seems likely to inflame people again.
> > 
> > He condemns McDonald's for killing animals so people can 
> eat their meat,
> > tries to explain why his theory on the usefulness of 
> euthanasia differs from
> > Adolf Hitler's and renews his argument for why parents 
> should have the right
> > to kill babies born with severe birth defects.
> > 
> > On euthanasia: "The Nazi euthanasia program was not 
> euthanasia at all. It
> > did not seek to provide a good death for human beings who 
> were leading a
> > miserable life."
> > 
> > On his belief that animals deserve more to live than 
> severely disabled
> > people: "There are beings who are sentient and capable of 
> experiencing
> > pleasure and pain but are not rational and self-conscious and so not
> > persons."
> > *************************************************
> > Alternative Press Review  -  www.altpr.org
> > Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
> > PO Box 4710  -  Arlington, VA 22204
> > 
> > Mid-Atlantic Infoshop  -  www.infoshop.org
> > Infoshop News Kiosk - www.infoshop.org/news.html
> > 
> > "Our first work must be the annihilation of everything
> > as it now exists."  -  Mikhail Bakunin
> > 
> > "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed,
> > debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own."  -  No.6