Singer protest

Jim Farmelant farmelantj at juno.com
Wed Jun 5 16:12:32 PDT 2002


On Wed, 5 Jun 2002 15:54:17 -0700 Marta Russell <ap888 at lafn.org> writes:
> >On Wed, 5 Jun 2002 09:10:08 -0700 Marta Russell <ap888 at lafn.org>
> writes:
> >
> > > Statement of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
> >> (DREDF)
> >>
> >>
> >
> >>
> >> According to Singer, to be ethical, we must treat all "persons"
> >> according to moral guidelines. But not all humans are "persons"
> in
> >> his view. Singer claims that in order to be "persons" and to
> deserve
> >> moral consideration, beings must be self-aware, and capable of
> >> perceiving themselves as individuals through time.
> >
> >Does anyone here have any objections to Singer's thesis concerning
> >persons?
>
>
> Singer claims that a human only becomes a person (self- aware) at 30
>
> days or some such point. He cannot know this. There is no science
> that can make this distinction in consciousness. Why not 28 days, 31
>
> days, why not 30 days and two minutes? Do all babies become self
> aware at the exact same moment? How about slow and fast starters
> (variation in the species) Singer's position is just too much BS
> for
> me.
> Singer would put everyone in a coma on the nonperson killing list --
>
> they aren't self-aware, but how many do we know come out of a coma?
> One is enough to not be killing them.

It seems to me though that one does require some sort of criteria for personhood, more or less along the lines that Singer is suggesting, if one is going to argue for the moral acceptability of abortion. Otherwise, it becomes very easy to argue that fetuses are persons too, and so entitled to the same sort of right to life that we ascribe to young infants. Again, how can the DREDF avoid taking an anti-abortion stance for consistency's sake, given their stance on personhood?

Jim F.


> Marta
>
>
>
>
> --
> Marta Russell
> Los Angeles, CA
> http://www.disweb.org

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