PRINCETON BIOETHICIST
PETER SINGER TO SPEAK AT WELLESLEY MARCH
9
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Wellesley, Mass--. Controversial
bioethicist Peter Singer will speak at Wellesley
College Thursday, March 9, on the topic
"Choosing Between Lives: Ethical Issues About
Humans and Animals. Singer has been invited to
Wellesley by Professor Adrienne Asch, the Henry
R. Luce Professor in Biology, Ethics and the
Politics of Human Reproduction at Wellesley
College.
The pair debated in October at Princeton
University's Bioethics Forum that focused on two
main issues: when, if ever, it would be
appropriate to kill a disabled infant, and the
relative worth of living with a profound
disability.
As reported in The New York Times, Singer
contends that it is not always wrong to kill an
innocent human being. But Professor Asch
contests his implication that a disabled
person's life is not as complete as anyone
else's.
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Professor Singer is slated to speak for approximately
45 minutes and then field questions from the audience for
more than an hour. The talk will begin at 7:30 pm in
Jewett Auditorium on the Wellesley campus. The auditorium
is accessible to people with disabilities; the
presentation will have sign language interpretation. This
event is sponsored by the Henry R. Luce Program in
Biology, Ethics and the Politics of Human Reproduction,
and is free and open to the public.
PROFESSOR PETER SINGER
Peter Singer, Ph.D., is the DeCamp Professor of
Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values,
Princeton University. His philosophical interests range
from animal liberation to obligations of the rich to help
the Third World, and his controversial views on life and
death challenge the world at large. Educated at the
University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford,
Singer taught at universities in England, America and
Australia prior to joining the Princeton faculty.
He first became well-known internationally after the
publication of Animal Liberation. His other books
include: Democracy and Disobedience; Practical Ethics;
The Expanding Circle; Marx; Hegel; How Are We to Live?,
Rethinking Life and Death and Ethics into Action. He is
the author of the major article on Ethics in the current
edition of the Encylopaedia Britannica. Outside academic
life, Peter Singer is President of Animal Rights
International, an organization founded by the late Henry
Spira, and of The Great Ape Project, an international
effort to obtain basic rights for chimpanzees, gorillas
and orangutans.
PROFESSOR ADRIENNE ASCH
Adrienne
Asch, Ph.D., is the Henry R. Luce Professor in
Biology, Ethics and the Politics of Human Reproduction at
Wellesley College. Most recently, Dr. Asch's work has
focused on the ethical, political, and psychological and
social implications of human reproduction and the family
and has become a nationally known figure in the bioethics
debate. Asch has been quoted in The New York Times,
Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, Baltimore Sun and
Toronto Star as well as on National Public Radio
for her outspoken views in opposition to Professor
Singer's assertions about the quality of life for people
with disabilities.
Asch received a B.A. in philosophy from Swarthmore
College; an M.S. in social work, community organization
and planning from Columbia University School of Social
Work; and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Columbia
University. From 1987 to 1990, she served as an Associate
in Social Science and Policy with the New Jersey
Bioethics Commission, and during 1993 was a member of the
Clinton Task Force on Health Care Reform. In January,
1995, she was appointed by U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala to serve on the
Commission on Childhood Disability.
At Wellesley she teaches such courses as Introduction
to Reproductive Issues; Multi-disciplinary Approaches to
Abortion; Ethical and Social Issues in Genetics; Women
and Motherhood; Ethical and Policy Issues in
Reproduction; and co-taught Literature and Medicine.
Dr. Asch currently serves on the Board of the Boston
Women's Health Book Collection; as a member of the Ethics
Committee for Boston's Faulkner Centre for Reproductive
Medicine; the Human Genetics Committee of the Council for
Responsible Genetics; and the Ethics Advisory Group, The
Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.
Recent publications include "The Disability Rights
Critique of Prenatal Genetic Testing: Reflections and
Recommendations" with E. Parens (The Hastings Center
Report, 29[5] Special Supplement, pp. S1-S22);
"Prenatal Diagnosis and Selective Abortion: A Challenge
to Practice and Policy" (American Journal of Public
Health, 89[11], pp. 1649-1657). She is presently
at work on a book on the ethical, social and
psychological issues in assisted reproduction.
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