Peter Singer - Philosophy and Ethics
Peter Singer (1946- )
Australian philosopher (pictured right), best known for his views on animal rights, abortion and euthanasia.
His most famous book
is...
Animal Liberation (1975), the bible of the animal rights movement.
What does he say about ethics?
1. Preference utilitarianism
This says that an action is right if it gives the people involved what they want.
(i.e. satisfying their preferences or desires through the action’s favourable
consequences).
2. Animal rights
Animals have the same rights as humans, because they can also suffer and feel pain.
Individual animal experiments may be justified, if their consequences are favourable, but animals’ interests
must be given as much weight as those of humans.
Singer is strongly opposed to mass animal experimentation.
3. Voluntary euthanasia
People should have the right to decide to die, when their quality of life disappears because of:
- inability to experience pleasure.
In such circumstances involuntary euthanasia (being forced to die) may also be justified, when people are so
mentally incapacitated that they can’t make an informed choice between life and death.
4. Abortion and infanticide
Singer’s principle of “personhood” says that a person is only a person, if he (or she) is
self-aware with the capacity to:
This doesn’t include unborn and newly born babies, so killing them is morally acceptable, if their parents want
it (as might be the case with a severely handicapped baby).
This justification of abortion and infanticide has been hugely
controversial.
5. Give and help the poor
People should:
- help the poor and needy at home and abroad.
- pay more attention to giving than getting.
Key quotes on
ethics
In suffering the animals are our equals.
The notion that human life is sacred just because it is human life is medieval.
If we can prevent something bad without sacrificing anything of comparable significance, we ought to do it.
We are responsible not only for what we do but also for what we could have prevented.
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