Peter Singer and Redeeming Characteristics

Kendall Clark kendall at monkeyfist.com
Tue Mar 13 14:58:34 PST 2001



>>>>> "marta" == Marta Russell <ap888 at lafn.org> writes:

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.



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