marta> We had a lengthy discussion of Singer on this list. It's in
marta> the archives. You'll see a lengthy discussion of Singer's
marta> position on disability. He does attribute a negative value
marta> to disabled lives.
No he doesn't. That's simply false.
He attributes negative value to the *pain* that disabled people experience (in the cases where they do), that is, negative value *to them*. In fact, conflating the claims 'pain has a negative value' and 'a life of pain has a negative value' does precisely what Singer is accused of: it reduces the diversity of experience that disabled persons have to *just* their pain, it makes *them* equivalent to their pain. That's wrong, of course, but it's not what *Singer* does.
If that's the upshot of the 'lengthy' discussion about Singer on this list, it certainly wasn't a *good* discussion.
I'll also note that Singer is far from being alone, either among philosophers and ethicists, or among the general public, in finding euthanasia permissible in some cases and *required* in other cases; so the whole debate focusing on *Singer* is at best a distortion.
Kendall -- The amount that we owe is all that we have.