Atheism to the fore... from CNN.com...

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Princeton professor's views spark protest

September 22, 1999

Web posted at: 8:27 AM EDT (1227 GMT)

 

 

PRINCETON, New Jersey (AP) -- More than 250 demonstrators protested the

first day of classes of a Princeton University professor who says parents

should have the right to euthanize newborns with severe handicaps.

 

The protesters -- including about 60 people in wheelchairs -- surrounded the

school's administration building. Fourteen people were arrested when they

refused to stop blocking the entrances.

 

Police who guarded the classroom where bioethics professor Peter Singer was

teaching said they will continue to do so as long as they feel it was

necessary.

 

In his recent books, Singer has said children less than one month old have

no human consciousness and do not have the same rights as others.

 

"Killing a defective infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person,"

he has written. "Sometimes it is not wrong at all."

 

Marie Tasy, of the anti-abortion group Right to Life, said Singer's views --

and their extreme interpretations -- prey on the vulnerable.

 

"Human history has shown us where this type of thinking can lead," she said.

"If Professor Singer's views do not go unchallenged, there is a possibility

that they could be adopted by health insurance companies, who are always

looking to save dollars."

 

Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes, a Princeton alumnus who also

serves on the university's Board of Trustees, said Tuesday he will withhold

any donations to the school as long as Singer teaches there.

 

Forbes, whose son is a Princeton junior, said in an open letter that

Singer's elevation to an endowed professorship "deeply troubles me, just as

it would if such an honor were bestowed upon an anti-Semite or a racist."

 

Pickets equated Singer with Adolf Hitler and chanted "Princeton promotes

murder of people with disabilities."

 

Singer, 53, declined an interview request by The Associated Press.

 

Bioethicist Paul Armstrong, the attorney who successfully argued for the

right to die in the landmark Karen Ann Quinlan case, said he disagrees with

many of Singer's ideas, but welcomed him to the bioethics debate.

 

"Peter's strength is making us rethink our first, fundamental ideas,"

Armstrong said. "His weakness is trying to translate that into public

policy."