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Peter Signer:
"Singer's mother suffers from severe Alzheimer's disease, and
so she no longer qualifies as a person by his own standards, yet he spends considerable sums on her care. This apparent contradiction of his principles has not gone unnoticed by the media. When I asked him about it during our interview at his Manhattan apartment in late July, he sighed and explained that he is not the only person who is involved in making decisions about his mother (he has a sister).
He did say that if he were solely responsible, his mother might not be alive today." (Singer's mother died shortly thereafter.)
http://guy-slippery-mind.htmlWhen Singer's mother became too ill to live alone, Singer and
his sister hired a team of home health-care aides to look after
her.
Singer's mother has lost her ability to reason, to be a person,
as he defines the term. So I asked him how a man who has written
that we ought to do what is morally right without regard to proximity
or family relationships could possibly spend tens of thousands
of dollars a year on private care for his mother. He replied that
it was "
probably not the best use you could make of my money.
That is true. But it does provide employment for a number of people
who find something worthwhile in what they're doing.''
This is a noble sentiment, but it hardly fits with Peter Singer's
rules for living an ethical life. He once told me that
he has no
respect for people who donate funds for research on breast
cancer or heart disease in the hope that it might indirectly save
them or members of their family from illness, since they could
be using that money to save the lives of the poor. ("That
is not charity,'' he said. "It's self- interest.")
http://www.michaelspecter.com/ny/1999/1999_09_06_philosopher.html