I wonder sometimes whether Peter Singer (the Australian who is tenured professor of ethics at Princeton) can really mean what he says about infants who aren't worth protecting since Mom can always have another baby and his latest sillyness about embryos from nuclear transfer (the rest of us call it cloning). This week, Singer says that if the embryos from nuclear transfer have the moral status of human embryos, we must believe that each of our cells (potential donors of DNA for cloning, after all) now has the same status as that of embryos.
In his opinion articles (such as this one), Singer sets up straw men and defines terms and situations. He then determines "if" (his statement and facts), "then" (he must be right).
But, thanks to Dr. Dianne N. Irving, I was alerted that Robert P. George and Patrick Lee have answered Singer at National Review Online.
There's also a fairly well written discussion about stem cells in the January 26th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. There is free full text access to the article "Beyond Fraud - Stem Cell Research Continues" by Snyder and Loring.
(Edited to close a parenthesis. 2-2-06, BBN)
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Up to date dueling ethicists on cloning, stem cells, and embryos
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2 comments:
Pete Singer has been saying this since at least the 1970's. Francis Schaeffer and Surgeon General Koop wrote about Singer's views on this in a book entitled, "Whatever Happened To The Human Race?". The book was originally published in 1979.
Singer is very serious. I pray that he will someday find God and repent of the harm he has wreak on bioethics.
He's on my prayer list, too.
In the mean time, we can hope reason and persistence will work.
God bless you, too.
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