When complex ethical issues are raised in the public arena to be used as political tools, as has been the case recently both here in the UK and in the USA, I often find myself thinking, What Would Peter Singer Do? Okay, this might be a slight exaggeration, but I have been reminded of his work by recent debates.
Way back in the dim and distant past, a green young girl moved to the Big(gish) City, and in her first year at university studied Moral Philosophy for a year. This lead to an introduction to the work of the sometimes controversial Australian, later study coming with a Political Theory course on the child, the family and the state. His ideas are easily exaggerated and misinterpreted by his opponents, but the basic tenets revolve around ideas of consciousness, what we mean by "human" and "person", and how our understanding of these terms should affect how we act towards other creatures.
As medical and scientific advances are made, these issues become more and more relevant each day, but often end up being reduced to cheap emotion. Singer's work is a welcome reminder that rational thought is possible, and indeed necessary, to inform our decisions and reactions to the moral quandaries such progress involves.
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