By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
James Reinl, the social affairs correspondent for the Daily Mail, published an article on June 6, wrote an in-depth piece about Princeton University Professor, Peter Singer, who promotes euthanasia in general but also euthanasia of babies born with disabilities.
Reinl explained why people are concerned about Singer:
Princeton University scholar Peter Singer is under fire for promoting euthanasia for adults and even sick newborns as he touts his new book on a tour of the US, Britain, and Australia.
Singer, 76, one of the world’s top living philosophers and an animal rights champion, has stoked fury with his recent vocal support for doctor-assisted killings, including for infants born with terminal conditions.
Critics have slammed Singer’s comments as ‘dangerous eugenics,’ accusing the Australian of undermining the terminally ill and disabled by suggesting they are better off dead.
Reinl quoted Alex Schadenberg concerning Singer:
‘He justifies that certain lives are unworthy of life, and his philosophy undermines the concept of human equality by justifying the killing of people who lack an undefined level of cognitive capacity.’
Reinl points out that Peter Singer is currently on a speaking tour of the US, Britain and Australia. Singer is controversial for and has been protested by the disability community for his views on euthanasia of newborns with disabilities. Reinl writes:
More contentious still, the bioethicist said parents of a newborn with a ‘very severe disability’ should be able to ask doctors to give the child a lethal injection.
‘Parents should still have the option of saying: ‘We think that it’s better that the child should not live,’ and doctors should be able to make sure that happens, to give the child a drug so that the child dies without suffering,’ Singer said.
His comments have provoked outrage among rights activists, who say legalizing euthanasia devalues the lives of disabled people, and prompts doctors to suggest the procedure to those who might not otherwise consider it.
Calling for lethal injections for sick newborns is even more emotive.
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| Meghan Schrader |
Reinl continues:
Meghan Schrader, 40, an autistic woman and instructor at the University of Texas at Austin, likened Singer’s ‘euthanasia program’ to state-sanctioned killings of disabled people in Nazi Germany.
Schadenberg said promoting euthanasia for newborns is ‘dangerous,’ as Canadian officials are weighing whether to expand access to assisted dying, as it is known, to include the mentally ill and children.
During the Canadian government committee hearings on Canada’s MAiD law, the representative for the Quebec College of Physicians expressed their support for both child euthanasia and the euthanasia of newborns, also known as infanticide.