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Return-path: [log in to unmask] From: [log in to unmask] Full-name: AOL News Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 15:52:32 EDT Subject: Scholar Involved in Euthanasia Flap MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Unknown (No Version) To: undisclosed-recipients:; Scholar Involved in Euthanasia Flap .c The Associated Press By LORI HINNANT PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) - Two weeks into the school year, Princeton professor Peter Singer works in an unmarked office, posts no office hours and teaches bioethics in a guarded classroom. The 53-year-old scholar has come under fierce criticism because of his view that parents should be able to euthanize severely disabled infants. His appointment as a tenured professor at the university's Center for Human Values has led to threats, a barrage of e-mails and demonstrations. Last week, some 250 protesters - many in wheelchairs - barricaded entrances to the administration building and demanded the university rescind its offer to the Australian scholar. ``I think it's a good thing to stimulate people to think,'' Singer said in an interview at his office Thursday. ``You can't separate debate and learning.'' Even presidential candidates are being drawn into the controversy. Republican Steve Forbes, a member of Princeton's board of trustees, has said he will no longer donate to his alma mater for as long as Singer teaches there. The wealthy publisher and his late father, Malcolm, have been among the university's most generous donors; an undergraduate residence hall at Princeton is named after the younger Forbes. Advocacy groups for the disabled are calling on Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley, also a Princeton alumnus and trustee, to condemn Singer's hiring. So far, Bradley has not commented on the issue. Singer's views on euthanasia were first detailed in his 1979 book ``Practical Ethics.'' He has written that children less than a month old have no human consciousness and that parents should be allowed to kill a severely disabled infant to end its suffering and to increase the family's happiness. ``Killing a defective infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person. Sometimes it is not wrong at all,'' he has written. In ``Animal Liberation,'' which Singer considers his most important work, he argues that the life of a person is not necessarily more valuable than that of an animal. The 1975 book led to the founding of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and turned Singer into the philosophical father of the animal rights movement. Some opponents liken his views to those of the Nazis. ``He provides a convenient ethical framework for bigotry and cost-saving measures that cut lives,'' said Stephen Drake of the Forest Park, Ill., disability group Not Dead Yet. ``I really don't think there's room for this kind of discussion.'' Singer, who is married and has a daughter, says he has actually received support from some parents of disabled children. ``There's no unanimity among those who live with disabled children,'' he said. ``If people attack me because of that belief, why aren't they going to clinics that offer prenatal testing and protesting there?'' Bob Griss, a Princeton graduate who is director of the Center on Disability and Health in Washington, said when he first heard of Singer's appointment, he petitioned the university to reconsider. But after exchanging e-mails with Singer over several weeks, Griss changed his mind. ``I personally view him more as an ally of the disability community than our archenemy,'' Griss said. ``I think that he's in a position to recognize the dangers of the implementation of his theoretical questions.'' Singer eats no meat, wears no leather and donates one-fifth of his income to international aid organizations. In a New York Times Magazine article, Singer wrote that members of affluent Western societies should donate at least 10 percent of their income to help ease starvation in poor countries. The article resulted in $75,000 in unexpected donations to Oxfam over three weeks, spokeswoman Peggy Connolly said. The attention has put Princeton in the difficult position of ensuring Singer's place without defending - or condemning - his views. The university has provided him with a guarded classroom and promised to maintain his safety and that of the 23 students taking his course, ``Questions of Life and Death.'' ``Some of the controversy can be attributed to misrepresentation or misinterpretation of his views,'' university President Harold T. Shapiro wrote in an editorial for the Daily Princetonian last November, shortly after Singer was appointed. ``But some of the controversy arises from the fact that he works on difficult and provocative topics and in many cases challenges long-established ways of thinking - or not thinking - about them.'' Singer, who has taught at universities in Britain and Australia, has been assaulted in Germany for his views and made an unsuccessful run for the Australian Senate as a Green Party candidate. He said the American controversy has not changed his larger views on life and death. ``If people read this as part of a broader context,'' he said, ``they understand that I'm trying to alleviate the amount of unnecessary suffering in the world. AP-NY-10-01-99 1551EDT Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press. Announcement: America Online has added Reuters newswires to News Profiles. To add Reuters articles to your daily news delivery, go to KW: <A HREF="aol://5862:146">News Profiles</A> and click on "Modify Your News Profiles." Then click "Edit" and add Reuters from the list on the left. To edit your profile, go to keyword <A HREF="aol://1722:NewsProfiles">NewsProfiles</A>. For all of today's news, go to keyword <A HREF="aol://1722:News">News</A>.