Category: Quotes

Peter Singer, who is a professor at Princeton University, wrote a book arguing for euthanasia and infanticide. He cites a survey of doctors to argue that it is hypocritical to allow late-term abortion but not infanticide:

(Note, the book was written in 1994, so the survey is no longer “recent.”)

“A recent survey asked paediatricians in senior positions in the United Kingdom to say whether they agreed or disagreed with a number of different statements among which were:

1. Abortion is morally permissible after 24 weeks if the fetus is abnormal;

2. There is no moral difference between the abortion of a fetus and the active termination of the life of a newborn infant when both have the same gestational age [that is, the same age dating from conception] and suffer from the same defects;

3. There are no circumstances in which it is morally permissible to take active steps to terminate the life of an infant with severe defects.

Nearly 40% of the senior paediatricians responding indicated that they agreed with all three of these statements, even though you can’t agree without contradicting yourself…

Senior paediatricians have come to accept prenatal diagnosis and late termination of pregnancy if a serious abnormality is found. They can also see there is no real difference between a late fetus and a newborn infant at the same gestational age.

But active euthanasia for severely disabled infants remains illegal and is not sanctioned by medical codes of ethics, no matter how premature the infants may be, or how serious their defects.”

Peter Singer Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994) 2, 3

Philosopher Peter Singer, who argues in favor of killing disabled babies, wrote about a poll about disabled children:

“In a 1983 Gallup poll, Americans were asked what they would do if they had a badly deformed baby in need of treatment. 43% said that they would ask the doctor not to keep the baby alive, and 40% said they would want the baby kept alive.”

Peter Singer Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994) 119 – 120

This quote reveals the terrible ableism that was present in our society, with more parents wanting a “deformed” baby to die than to live. I’m not aware of any more recent surveys, so I don’t know if things have improved since then, but with the high rate of disabled babies aborted after fetal screenings show disabilities, I suspect that they haven’t.