Moreover, the movement of which Singer is the reigning diva, "utilitarian" ethics, holds that folks whose birth defects, illnesses or injuries make their enjoyment of life marginal would be better off out of their misery — even if, as they're wheeled into the euthanasia chamber, they're screaming, "No, wait, really, I don't mind living in a wheelchair. Please dooonnnn'ttt... urk!"
More important, society would be better without such unpleasant people around because, with utilitarians, all that counts is raising the overall level of happiness. A dead person cannot, by definition, be unhappy, nor can an inherently unhappy (read: retarded, severely disabled, etc.) person continue to infect others with their dismal state after they have been promoted to a higher astral plane. Thus, the rest of us must be happier once these wet blankets are discarded, according to the utilitarians.
Among the absolutely and perfectly logical extensions of Singer's theories: Defective infants should be offed (before their 28th day, Singer declares). They aren't yet cognizant of their own existence, and their early exit would mean that a family's other children and parents would have happier lives. Society, meanwhile, would be spared the expense of caring for these, to Singer, un-persons.
Some utilitarians, although not Singer, even tout a brave new world in which the organs of the less worthy are harvested so that the productive elites can have longer, productive lives. Think of Strom Thurmond living to 300, thanks to all of those poor folks and dummies who gave their all, literally.
When I asked professor Singer about Terri Schiavo, his answer wasn't a surprise.
"Is there any point in keeping someone [like Schiavo] alive?" he mused. "In a previous age, she would have been dead long ago. I don't see any reason to keep the tube in place."
Where did this appalling thinking hatch? One answer is the eugenics movement. This ideology — fostered by America's elite families, including the Bush clan — held that we should cull the herd by inhibiting breeding among the socially inferior.(George W.'s and Jeb's grandfather and great-grandfather had extensive links with Nazi Germany and its official pseudo-science, eugenics. Previously classified documents were uncovered by Miami journalist John Buchanan in September that add details to episodes such as the 1942 seizure of Bush-related companies for "trading with the enemy." Prescott Bush, grandfather to the president and Florida's governor, lost his first run for the U.S. Senate in 1950 after famed columnist Drew Pearson revealed the family's long sponsorship of eugenics.)
One of the more ghastly applications of eugenics was the mass, involuntary sterilization of Americans, beginning in 1904 and continuing even after the Nuremburg trials, which declared such acts crimes against humanity. Altogether, about 60,000 Americans were sterilized, including 3,000 in Georgia after the state passed a eugenics law in 1937. Florida was one of the few states that didn't adopt a eugenics law.
"Overwhelmingly, the only crimes of these people were that they were poor and black," Edwin Black, author of a book on eugenics, War Against the Weak, told me.
Elsewhere in the world, some peculiar folks perked up at the idea of improving the race. "American eugenic crusades proliferated into a worldwide campaign, and in the 1920s came to the attention of Adolf Hitler," Black writes. "Under the Nazis, American eugenic principles were applied without restraint, careening out of control into the Reich's infamous genocide."
For "progressives," there are disturbing tendrils of eugenics that are still evident today. Planned Parenthood — an icon of the left — was founded by Margaret Sanger, who endorsed the sterilization of "genetically inferior races."
Back to Terri Schiavo. Those who want her kept alive (if that's what she is), include the usual battalions from the anti-abortion/right-to-life movement. I'm pro-choice, but reluctantly so. To me, a fetus is potential, not yet a human. Tempering my view are my five adopted children — and the scary knowledge that many would have urged their birth mother to have abortions.Among the right-to-lifers, I have profound respect for some — those who consistently oppose all homicide, including wars, capital punishment and, as they define murder, abortion. Pope John Paul II comes to mind.
I have an equal measure of disdain for the selective killers — the religious right that gnashes its teeth at the thought of abortion but sees no problem in executing people, including (as happened this month in Georgia) the insane and those who were children when they committed their crimes. Nor do the very un-Christian preachers see much wrong in killing thousands in a war based on deceit.
