Correspondence
Correspondence USE YOUR ILLUSION CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER exceeds even his high standard of clarity in his essay on arms control policy, but two points need amplification ("Arms Control: The End of an...
...My daughter has made me a more compassionate person...
...How reprehensible...
...Not just because someone of Bottum's intellectual stature has finally addressed the Singer issue, but because it is very complex and Bottum has hit the nail on the head on every point...
...1 cover a la Private Eye...
...Many of my fellow moms were not...
...But she's not...
...Granted, J.K...
...Peter Singer will also be influencing future policymakers—the very people who will consider making infanticide legal...
...She's been seizure-free for over a year now, and is only mildly developmentally delayed...
...By promoting his theories, he is opening the door to a very bleak future...
...Only "nuts" would consider protesting the profound and brilliant "theories" of the likes of Singer...
...This, among other salient features of the bioethics movement, is one reason why there will really be no "academic freedom" in these Princeton classes...
...All of us former philosophy graduate students had the likes of Singer, R.M...
...DOUG SYMMES White River Junction, VT THE SCANDAL OF SINGER AS A PARENT OF A CHILD with significant disabilities, I also find Peter Singer's presence at Princeton "intolerable and unconscionable" ("Princeton and Its Principles," Nov...
...Normal" people don't want to be associated with those "nuts," so they stay out of the discussions...
...Rowling's writing is neither completely original nor brilliantly crafted, but those observations miss the point of these books and overlook their value...
...DAVID C. STOLINSKY Los Angeles, CA CONGRATULATIONS on your Nov...
...Correspondence USE YOUR ILLUSION CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER exceeds even his high standard of clarity in his essay on arms control policy, but two points need amplification ("Arms Control: The End of an Illusion," Nov...
...No one can determine how another human being will develop over time—not even a doctor...
...And I say with this singular authority: Peter Singer is wrong...
...How can Princeton stand by and allow this to happen...
...I can't offer a seasoned, logical counter-argument in debate...
...Her name is Crystal Aquielle...
...Of course Harry makes mistakes, defies authority, gets in trouble, and even gets injured...
...My family and I have a personal stake in all of this...
...This may be true politically, but not legally...
...As a parent of three (two of whom stayed awake reading all three Harry Potter books under the covers with a flashlight), I am gratified to find children's literature our whole family can read, enjoy, and meaningfully discuss...
...This man will be influencing future doctors—the very doctors who will be advising parents what to do with their newborn handicapped children...
...But when it really matters, he is able to make the correct decision and take what is ultimately the right course of action...
...I hold no advanced university degrees...
...Its methodological grounding includes symbolic logic—used quite proficiently by these eugenicists, but extraordinarily difficult for undergraduates, graduate students, and even most faculty to master...
...Apparently, years of looking at paper may cause one to alter his basic concept of reality...
...Academic freedom requires a level playing field, and that is non-existent when these philosophers and bioethics are involved...
...The reason I'm on my fourth pediatric neurologist is that they don't know everything...
...First, Krauthammer notes that it would be difficult for the United States to amend the 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty to allow us to build needed defenses...
...As the mother of a little girl with Down's syndrome, I am weary of seeing legitimate objections to this man being scoffed at as so much ignorance and closed-minded, right-wing-conspiracy nonsense...
...When Crystal was born she appeared perfect...
...Anyone who could say that the world would be better off without her is somewhere on the axis between cruel and cuckoo...
...It is difficult to raise children with significant disabilities in America today...
...I'm the mother of a disabled child...
...Most of us have encountered administrators who rarely check to see what is actually happening in the field, while insisting that their procedure manual reflects reality...
...When President Carter abrogated our treaty with Taiwan, the Supreme Court refused to intervene (Goldwater v. Carter, 1979...
...If a doctor influenced by Singer were to go by what my daughter's prognosis should be, they could very easily encourage the termination of such a child...
...Harry Potter is not only a hero to whom most children can relate, he is a hero who does the right things...
...Sadly, these values are missing from most of the popular culture of which our children are a part...
...I know...
...Second, why do so many people place so much faith in treaties...
...I cannot believe he is being funded by Laurence Rockefeller/population-control money...
...The fact that Singer's appointment is not universally accepted by those at Princeton gives me hope...
...Hence an incoming Republican president could abrogate the ABM treaty without Senate approval...
...He is right about one thing: Most parents follow the advice of their doctors in times of stress...
...That is why they can be killed, because they are not "persons...
...I had no clue there was anything wrong with her until she was 4 months old...
...He knows nothing at all about raising children with disabilities—the children who grow from the newborn babies he would have no problem murdering...
...One who rejects anti-missile defenses and inspections, but instead believes that a piece of paper will protect us against nuclear missiles, is dangerously deluded...
...DIANNE N. IRVING Bethesda, MD I APPRECIATED J. BOTTUM'S informative editorial regarding Peter Singer...
...All babies...
...Singer's magic "28-day window" occurs right when parents are most emotionally vulnerable...
...That is precisely why his ideas are so dangerous...
...I would like to thank J. Bottum and The Weekly Standard for speaking out and defending what should not need defending: the right of babies not to be murdered...
...Crystal and all of the other children who will be born with a severe handicap deserve a voice too...
...Regrettably, much of our political system is controlled by such people...
...The tactic being used by Singer et al...
...I never imagined arms control policy could make me laugh this much...
...Her doctors performed two MRIs (and numerous EEGs) to determine the cause of her seizures...
...But if people think Singer is a problem, wait until Hare and Glover pop on the scene...
...She has brought me up short with my own limitations...
...This is ludicrous...
...The condition is characterized by the delusion that the external world must reflect what is written on paper, rather than vice versa...
...is to preclude any real debate or discussion by means of reducing the protesters to "fringe right radicals...
...If it is true that no department at Princeton wants him either, then apparently I am not the only one who does...
...CHRISTINE WICKMAN Egg Harbor Twp., NJ I JUST WANTED TO THANK YOU for publishing the editorial by J. Bottum on Peter Singer's appointment at Princeton...
...That Singer offers an easy solution to the problem of supporting these children and their families is a dangerous, horrific thing...
...I am not a philosopher, nor a learned academician...
...And that strategy has already worked...
...Hare, Jonathan Glover, etc., foisted on us, and I can tell you from experience that the "scholarship" is not there, nor is it academically defensible—at least when they have to go up against real scholars...
...MICHAEL M. SHAHANI Walnut Creek, CA...
...According to all of the textbooks, she should be very handicapped...
...She "presented" with Infantile Spasms (a form of childhood epilepsy...
...Yes, she has a name...
...My voice, however, is one of rare authority in this arena: I am a mom and know what it is like to raise a baby whom Singer suggests is expendable based on chromosomal count...
...I live with one on a daily basis...
...Perhaps the solution is to elect fewer attorneys and theoreticians, and more engineers, scientists, physicians, and ordinary workers and business people whose life work has trained them to be grounded in reality, not paper...
...The real lessons he learns are not about magic, but about trust, selfless love, honor, respect, and courage...
...Four pediatric neurologists and three diagnoses later, I finally know that my daughter has Bilateral Parietal Polymicrogyria...
...At the climax of each of the three books, Harry's salvation comes not from external, magical sources, but from his ability to act in accordance with moral principles, regardless of his fear of personal feelings...
...If what Singer is promoting becomes reality, children like Crystal will have to prove they are persons...
...Real philosophers simply shake their heads in disbelief...
...Singer has stated time and again that even normal, healthy human infants are neither sentient nor exercise rational attributes, and therefore they are not "persons...
...She was placed on ACTH (a steroid) and it eradicated her seizures within a week...
...Singer obviously has no understanding of how things work...
...I find Peter Singer to be an embarrassment...
...I was lucky to have supportive medical people...
...I am the one who gets the sticky kisses, the smiles, the cheers with each new accomplishment...
...MARY WILT Virginia Beach, VA I HAVE JUST READ J. Bottum's editorial "Princeton and Its Principles," and I heave a great sigh of relief...
...GINGER HOUSTON-LUDLAM Edgewater, MD POTTER PRAISE I MUST SAY that J. Bottum's review of the Harry Potter books is accurate but not particularly insightful ("Success Story," Nov...
...Bottum is also the first commentator to understand that the issue is not disability, but personhood...
...Singer claims to have lofty ideas, yet he doesn't have a clue regarding the value of these children...
...Bottum also points to one critical distinction which escapes even most academic commentators: The "brand" of utilitarianism used by these philosophers is "preference utilitarianism"—quite different from Bentham and Mill...
...How else to stay somewhat sane in this theater of the absurd we call Democratic arms control fantasy...
...He finds them valueless, but his understanding is shallow, his experience nil...
...If parents across this country do not wake up and see that Singer's teachings are dangerous to our living children, we may live to see the day we are faced with the charge: You should have killed it...
...I believe this exemplifies a wider malady, one endemic to diplomats, academics, lawyers, judges, and administrators...
...You had the chance...
...Televised trials have shown us judges and attorneys who accept convoluted hypotheses in place of evidence...
...Any babies...
...This is very rare, and it took two months for the doctors to properly diagnose and treat her...
...She is not some faceless entity taking the place of a child more worthy of life...
...But the "clique" makes sure that never happens...
Vol. 5 • November 1999 • No. 9
