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Which death options are important to you? Why?
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Name: Betty Alfred
Email: astrobrd@aol.com
Date: 10 Sep 1999
Time: 12:51:41
Remote User:
Two weeks ago, someone asked me if I didn't think that some severely disabled people were burdens to society. Isn't that interesting?
"No," I said deliberately, "Lazy people are a burden to society."
I might have asked her what method she recommended for disposing of these severely disabled burdens, but her comment didn't call for sarcasm. She was hesitant about her position, and she knew she wasn't asserting a fully considered opinion. And frankly, she had a "grandma" quality that made me want to pull my punch.
We talked a little longer, and I left her with two thoughts. I reminded her that severely disabled people are society, and I let her know -- gently -- that we are a tribe.
It's important that we comprehend the true nature of the disability rights movement. We are at war. We are at war with misconception, but we are at war. We have casualties, heroes, and troop movements. We have soldiers, generals, and officers, and members who don't think there is a war (they are conspicuous by their absence, incidentally). We have members who know we are at war, but who are unable to fight.
Grandma wasn't sure, but she thought it might be okay to kill them.
Utilitarian bioethics is an interesting concept, and Peter Singer, if you haven't heard, is an interesting guy who has been thinking, talking, and writing about utilitarian bioethics for the past 20 years. Peter Singer looks like a nice man, and the kind of guy you'd want for a next-door neighbor.
Peter Singer thinks it's okay to kill infants with disabilities -- if the parents want that -- so they can replace the defective infant with a normal one, thereby increasing the family's happiness. As a matter of fact, Peter Singer thinks that infants, disabilities notwithstanding, are not even persons. He also thinks that people who are cognitively disabled -- who are not self-aware -- are not persons either. Only persons, according to Peter Singer, should be accorded the right to live.
You might want to congratulate Dr. Singer. He has just received a tenure position on Princeton University's faculty, where he will be the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics, an academic chair at the University's Center for Human Values. It isn't a big deal or anything. Well, it's just that Dr. Singer now has the credibility that comes with this particular position to enhance his influence in the international bioethics community, not to mention his students at the "College of Bioethical Knowledge."
These kids are not slackers either. Princeton University does not attract, accept, or produce slackers. Princeton graduates eventually attain prominent positions in their chosen disciplines. They become the attorneys, political figures, and scientists who have the power to fashion the course of our future. Even as you are reading this, Princeton's best and brightest are engaged in such lofty debates as "what constitutes human life"?
Dr. Singer can help them conclude that debate. He has boldly espoused his clear and unmistakable definition of "human." Furthermore, Princeton knows exactly what it's getting. It's President, Dr. Harold T. Shapiro, is the Chairman of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, appointed by President Clinton. Princeton didn't ask for a bioethicist who subscribed to traditional moral values about human life, no (such people do exist, by the way). Princeton asked for a bioethicist who, for the past 20 years, has been spreading the gospel of utilitarian genocide.
I have read that the good doctor can't speak in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland because he gets run out of town when he tries.
The utilitarian bioethics community is at war, too. They have some of the elements we have. They have soldiers, generals and officers. They have troop movements. Dr. Singer's appointment to Princeton is one example. They don't have casualties, but they do have members who don't know there is a war. They are the pawns, and one of them is Grandma. She will calmly sip tea and close her eyes as our brothers and sisters are being murdered.
She does care though, so she will call her local telethon number and boldly donate $10.00 to the cause of children at that awkward phase: too disabled to fend for themselves, and too cognitively aware to kill.
Disability rights activism is not always about chaining ourselves to the doors of inaccessible buildings. Sometimes it's a quiet battle. Sometimes it's about leaving a neighbor with food for thought.
Your nondisabled friends, relatives, and neighbors are being bombarded by the media with many bioethical concerns, from stem cell research to physician assisted suicide. They are hungry for knowledge, and there is an orchestrated movement afoot to give it to them. This movement is educated, and it knows how to coerce. It won't use the word "kill."
An educated person does want to kill some of us though. He has said so, and he has been appointed to a position that will allow him to direct minds of consequence for many years to come.
Either utilitarian bioethicists are jockeying for better leverage, or this is the most complex example of dumb luck I've ever seen.
This is a call to arms. Public opinion is far too complacent about the concept of designer babies; that is frightening enough. But now there are those who would convince the great undecided that the elimination of some of us is the road to a better society. We absolutely must stand firm with one voice, as one community. Our respective disabilities are not relevant in this battle. We must be tribal, and we must educate our neighbors.
We must!
I would be remiss if I did not mention that are ethically minded students at Princeton University who have formed "Princeton Students Against Infanticide." They have openly opposed Dr. Singer's appointment.
Copyright © 1999 Betty Alfred. All rights reserved.
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