Friday, March 03, 2006

"Blood on his hands"


Although the Bush administration acknowledged that some scientists believe stem cell research could offer new ways of treating diseases that affect 128 million Americans, this prospect evidently did not, in Bush's view, justify destroying human embryos.

Last month, the military forces that this same president commands aimed a missile at a house in Damadola, a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border. Eighteen people were killed, among them five children.

From this op-ed in the Times of India, highlighting the US President George W. Bush's conduct that conflicts so clearly with what can, at best, be described as his moral posturing. It appeared today, in the middle of the president's three-day visit to India.

The author of the op-ed is none other than Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics at Princeton. Singer's exploration of utilitarian philosophy and thinking has led him to all kinds of very controversial conclusions, and his appointment at Princeton over five years ago drew a lot of protest, prompting the President of that university to issue this statement. The Wikipedia entry on Singer is here. You might also be interested in this interview with him from over five years ago.

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