>In a message dated 09/05/1999 1:50:24 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
><<  I am afraid your are correct re: the direction of bioethics toward
> eugenics(a politically correct term for "population pruning"). Peter Singer
> is the tip of the iceberg.
>
> Bobby
>  >>
>
>Yes Bobby, I'm afraid I am right too, although I'd dearly love to be wrong.
>I've been searching through the Princeton website, and the deeper I dig, the
>more concerned I become.  They are serious about bioethics at that
>University, and serious about making policy.  It's interesting to note that
>Princeton's president, Dr. Harold Shapiro, is also the Chairman for the
>National Bioethics Advisory Commission.  This appointment of Dr. Singer was
>no fluke.  They have the only undergraduate bioethics society in the US too,
>and the outline for one of the bioethics classes includes such discussions as
>"what is the definition of a human."  Dr. Singer has defined that, and as you
>already know, it doesn't include all of us.  A requirement that counts for
>20% of the class grade involves conducting community surveys, and helping in
>the community with bioethics education.  The list of groups they can select
>from to accomplish this task goes from a preschool all the way up to high
>school, as well as a Planned Parenthood group.  They can select other groups
>as well, with the permission of their professor.  With regard to conducting
>surveys, they are instructed to be mindful of bias.  That is how the
>scientific community would view the informed perspective of a person with a
>disability.  Bias is indeed a valid factor to take into account, but I
>believe it would be morally corrupt to term our perspective of our value to
>society as "bias."  This is a reach.  I'm address how they would consider our
>views if they were to include us in surveys about utilitarian bioethics.
>
Betty,

        This is real scary. When someone proffers a definition of "human"
which does not include all living humans, this is the beginning of
de-humanization, the first step toward genocide. The Nazi's used it and we
used it in Viet Nam.

Watch out. That this is all coming out of the second, or third, most
prestigious school in the nation is terrifying.

Bobby