Peter Singer Doesn’t Represent BKLYN Library Staff!

“He [Peter Singer] insists he doesn't want to kill me. He simply thinks it would have been better, all things considered, to have given my parents the option of killing the baby I once was… [to] satisfy the reasonable preferences of parents for a different kind of child.” Harriet McBryde Johnson, Disability Rights Activist [i]

This year’s Kahn Humanities Lecturer, Peter Singer, has a history of dangerous and ableist rhetoric.  He uses his belief that some people are “persons” and others, such as those with disabilities are not, to justify infanticide and involuntary euthanasia. 

In his own words:

 “There will surely be some nonhuman animals whose lives, by any standard, are more valuable than the lives of some humans. A chimpanzee, dog, or pig, for instance, will have a higher degree of self-awareness and a greater capacity for meaningful relations with others than a severely retarded infant or someone in a state of advanced senility.”[ii]

“I still think there are cases where parents should have the option of ending the life of their severely disabled infant.”[iii]

In his writing he has included people with intellectual disabilities, spinal bifida and hemophilia under the umbrella of ‘severely disabled’.[iv]

Giving a platform to this ableist apologist of euthanasia of disabled people is at odds with BPL’s longstanding commitment to serving youth with disabilities in particular and people with disabilities in general.  We trust that this engagement is an aberration and not a harbinger of things to come.

We stand with Brooklyn Public Library workers condemn Peter Singer’s denial of the personhood of people with disabilities and his unfortunate selection as the 2023 Kahn lecturer.    

[i] Johnson, Harriet McBryde.  2003.  “Unspeakable Conversations,” New York Times Magazine, Feb. 16 https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/16/magazine/unspeakable-conversations.html
[ii] Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: The Definitive Classic of the Animal Movement 53 (40th anniv. ed. 2015)
[iii] Matthews, Dulan.  2023.  “One of the world’s most controversial philosophers explains himself, Vox, May 30 https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23737349/peter-singer-philosophy-animal-welfare-factory-farming-euthanasia-disabled-ethics

[iv] Afford, Wiliam P.  2021.  “The Discordant Singer:  How Peter Singer’s Treatment of Global Poverty and Disability Is Inconsistent and Why it Matters,” in American Journal of Law and Equality, Sept. 1,  https://direct.mit.edu/ajle/article/doi/10.1162/ajle_a_00014/107218/THE-DISCORDANT-SINGER-How-Peter-Singer-s-Treatment )