I base this on a reading of the book he wrote with Helga Kuhse, Should the Baby Live: The Problem (sic) of Handicapped Infants. If the ideas weren't so attractive to those who can't or won't think critically, I'd recommend the book for people who don't like suspense.

In the book, Singer and Kuhnse attempt to refute the "slippery slope" analogy by giving the example of a skier who can turn and stop at will. Of course the Nazi example, which Singer doesn't like, wasn't like that, nor are the governments or medical professions of the United States, Australia, or any human creation. We know that in the country where physicians induce death most frequently, the Netherlands, doctors repeatedly breach "safeguards." (A study in the Journal of Medical Ethics suggested that "voluntary" euthanasia wasn't voluntary not 2, or 10, but 20% of the time).

I'd like to believe that we could rely on the "marketplace of ideas" in international governmental and academic discussions. But for the marketplace to stand a chance, people with disabilities would need to be proportionally represented. We aren't, and a consequence is that our lives are undervalued by Singer and others who venture onto the slippery slope of compromise in the interest of the "greater good."

-- Art Blaser, Associate Professor of Political Science, Chapman University (posted 3/23, 1:35 p.m., E.S.T.)

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