[Silver]

I'm currently reading some Peter Singer (anyone that gets vilified to that degree must have something interesting to say, and even though I'm not overly interested in ethics as a field, he is a very clear writer)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060007443/qid=1133398229/sr=8-5/ref=pd_bbs_5/104-1937635-7529503?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

and so far I'm not seeing what all the fuss is about. I am troubled about the parts on using animals (and I'm hardly a PETA member...for full disclosure, I'm a decent cook, and while I have no illusions about where that chicken came from, they do taste very good pan seared with a quick sauce) but the essay on abortion is strikingly well done.

So, anyone else actually read the guy? I was expecting much more inflammatory stuff.

 

[Changleen]

He probably upset someone important at a dinner party.

 

[valve bouncer]

I don't think you become one of the head honchos at Princeton by being an idiot, nor by being a shrinking violet. However I can't see how you can put a good spin on euthanising the severely disabled.

 

[Damn True]

yeah, that's pretty much not cool

 

[Changleen]

Disagree.

 

[kidwoo]

Disagree.

Kind of a dumb thing to say for someone who dirtjumps and rides a lot of concrete isn't it?

 

[Changleen]

No. I'd hate to be a vegetable. My wife knows exactly how I feel about it.

 

[kidwoo]

No. I'd hate to be a vegetable. My wife knows exactly how I feel about it.

I wasn't thinking vegetable so much...... I couldn't walk for about 6 months once after some bones went all splintery......do I die?

 

[Changleen]

Nah, Dude. Broken bones do not a vegetable make. Bones heal.

 

[Silver]

I don't think you become one of the head honchos at Princeton by being an idiot, nor by being a shrinking violet. However I can't see how you can put a good spin on euthanising the severely disabled.

Now, I haven't made it to that part of the book yet...

Having said that, from what I've read so far, his position seems to be not so much that we should be knocking off the disabled but that we need to be rethinking the way we treat our animal relatives, especially if we're going to make the claim that life is somehow sacred.

Which makes me think. It wasn't so long ago that working slaves to death in the field was acceptable and perfectly moral behaviour, and only a few crackpots thought it was objectionable. I'm trying to figure out if knowing that pork didn't come shrinkwrapped originally makes me more or less culpable...

edit: I'm flipping through the essay on euthnasia, and I'll make it there in the next day or two. It's much more nuanced than "knock off the cripples!" So, back to my original question:

Anyone else read the guy?

 

[valve bouncer]

No. I'd hate to be a vegetable. My wife knows exactly how I feel about it.

One thing Singer advocates is euthanising severely disabled newborns.

 

[MudGrrl]

Nah, Dude. Broken bones do not a vegetable make. Bones heal.

Vegetables don't have bones




That's why I eat them


mmmmmmmmm, vegetables

 

[LordOpie]

Wait, is he saying we should kill the severly disabled or give them the right to choose medically assisted suicide?

 

[valve bouncer]

Wait, is he saying we should kill the severly disabled or give them the right to choose medically assisted suicide?

He advocates euthanising the severely disabled at birth in some circumstances.

 

[LordOpie]

He advocates euthanising the severely disabled at birth in some circumstances.

who decides: parents or state?

 

[valve bouncer]

who decides: parents or state?

Dunno. Chuck Norris?

 

[Changleen]

I agree that to keep some people alive is far crueler than to let them die. However - Steven Hawking.

 

[Silver]

Dunno. Chuck Norris?

Coast Guard?

 

[Silver]

He advocates euthanising the severely disabled at birth in some circumstances.

Not quite. He doesn't see that decision as being wrong. That is different from advocating the activity.

 

[Silver]

who decides: parents or state?

Parents.