A CALL TO ACTION
A protest is being held to challenge the ableist and offensive views of controversial bioethicist Dr. Peter Singer. His views have opened up a clamor of disgust, fear, and anger among disability rights advocates, especially after his vehemantly protested appointment as the head of the Bioethics Department at Princeton University.
This protest will be an informational picket.
For more info call (510) 841-6406
WE CANNOT ALLOW HIM TO COME TO THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE DISABILITY RIGHTS MOVEMENT UNCHALLENGED!!!!
WHEN: June 7, 2002, 6:00 PM
WHERE: Calvin Simmons Theater, Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium
10th Street
Oakland, CA
(near Lake Merritt BART)
Here are a few of Singer's views that exemplify why he is a threat to not only our equality, but our lives.
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Singer advocates making it legal to kill disabled infants up to 28 days after birth as well as older "non-persons with disabilities." "When the death of a disabled infant will lead to the birth of another infant with better prospects of a happy life, the total amount of happiness will be greater if the disabled infant is killed ... killing a disabled infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person. Very often it is not wrong at all." - Peter Singer Certain adults to whom labels such as "persistent vegetative state" (PVS), "profound mental retardation" and "dementia" are attached may also be killed with less justification, according to Singer. "When the death of a disabled infant will lead to the birth of another infant with better prospects of a happy life, the total amount of happiness will be greater if the disabled infant is killed." - Peter Singer He explicitly holds that infants are not persons with a right to life and that "there will be permissible exceptions to the rule against killing infants that will not apply to the rule against killing adults and children." Another justification Singer offers for killing a "non-person" is that it frees "persons," or society, from what they may see as the "burden" imposed by the life of a "non-person." "We know that once our children's lives are properly underway, we will become committed to them; for that very reason, many couples do not want to bring up a child if they fear that both the child's life and their own experience of child-rearing will be clouded by a major disability." - Dr. Peter Singer in "Rethinking Life and Death, "
*********************************** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Blane N. Beckwith 510-841-6406 Email: blane10 at juno.com Ruthanne Shpiner 510-524-9680 Email: ruthannes at earthlink.net Disability Rights Advocates to Stage Protest Against Peter Singer When: June 7, 2002 6:00 PM Where: Calvin Simmons Theater Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center 10 10th Street Oakland, CA Why: This protest is being held to oppose the viewpoint of Peter Singer, head of the Bioethics Dept. at Princeton University. The event he will be appearing at will be a debate between Singer and Nigel Cameron of the Center for Bioethics & Culture. Singer's views are ableist because they contribute to the mistaken belief that persons with severe disabilities are not on an equal level with able-bodied persons. As a bioethicist, he advocates that these beliefs be translated into discriminatory health care and law enforcement policies that would allow the killing of disabled people for utilitarian reasons. His views are partly aimed at disabled children, and he advocates infanticide and extermination. He has been quoted in his book "Practical Ethics" saying, "When the death of a disabled infant will lead to the birth of another infant with better prospects of a happy life, the total amount of happiness will be greater if the disabled infant is killed ... killing a disabled infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person. Very often it is not wrong at all." Singer advocates making it legal to kill disabled infants up to 28 days after birth as well as older "non-persons with disabilities." Older "non-persons" would include people with labels of severe and profound "mental retardation," people with severe brain injuries, such as Robert Wendland (whose wife's quest for the legal right to withhold life-sustaining treatment was rejected by the California Supreme Court last year, though the ruling came too late to save his life), and people with advanced Alzheimer's Disease or other dementias. We condemn his endorsement of both infanticide and extermination. Persons with disabilities are battling hard against marginalization and blatant discrimination, we cannot allow Singer's ableist views to be expressed unchallenged. The voice of so-called experts like Dr Singer is loud when policy makers draft and enforce legislation which affects disabled people. His views are life threatening. Singer's writings on ethics are widely used as textbooks in mandatory ethics courses for health care professionals across the country. Unchallenged, Dr Singer is a danger to our struggle for independence and equality. Singer advocates depriving people with disabilities, from the youngest to the oldest, of the equal protection of the law. Not since slavery has a minority group in the U.S. been the subject of such a devastatingly blatant attack on our basic right to exist under the Constitution.
-- Marta Russell Los Angeles, CA http://www.disweb.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20020605/71fb5a6f/attachment.htm>