Peter Singer event cancelled in New Zealand after outcry over disability stance

An event with Australian philosopher Peter Singer has been cancelled in New Zealand after outcry over his public stance on the morality of killing some disabled newborns.

Singer, best known as a proponent of the “effective altruism movement”, has previously written that parents should be allowed to euthanise disabled babies if they wish to.

In his 1979 book Practical Ethics, Singer included conditions like Down syndrome, spina bifida and haemophilia among disabilities that make “the child’s life prospects significantly less promising than those of a normal child”. He has argued that parents of children with these conditions should be allowed to end their child’s life.

“The position taken here does not imply that it would be better that no people born with severe disabilities should survive; it implies only that the parents of such infants should be able to make this decision,” he wrote.

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Singer has argued his views do not apply to adults living with disabilities, but only to newborn infants, who lack “rationality, autonomy and self-consciousness”.

On Wednesday, the venue for his upcoming Auckland event announced they had cancelled their venue hire agreement after “concerns raised by the public and local media”.

The 73-year-old had been due to speak on 14 June at Auckland’s SkyCity.

“Whilst SkyCity supports the right of free speech, some of the themes promoted by this speaker do not reflect our values of diversity and inclusivity,” the venue told The Guardian.

The promoter of the event, Suzi Jamil, said the philosopher would be immediately looking for a new venue for the event.

Dr Huhana Hickey, a legal academic and advocate for Multiple Sclerosis New Zealand, told NewsHub that Singer was “not an expert” when it came to disability.

The academic said she would protest his event but did not want it cancelled.

“He has every right to freedom of speech, they have every right to host him,” she said. “I have every right to protest and to counter his speech around disability.

“He’s one of a kind when it comes to his expertise in animal rights, however he’s not an expert in the area of disability”.

In 2012, Australian journalist and disability advocate Stella Young said she believed Singer was “simply misinformed” about the quality life of modern people with disability.

“He uses spina bifida as an example of a disability that might warrant infanticide,” Young said. “I have a number of friends who have spina bifida. One of them is Kurt Fearnley, who I expect we’ll be hearing quite a lot about in the coming weeks as he competes in his third Paralympic Games in London.

“I’ve always hoped that Singer is simply misinformed about the quality of our lives because he doesn’t live it. What worries me is that in the 10 years since their debate, Singer’s view doesn’t seem to have shifted at all.”

In a statement, Singer said Skycity had not “checked the facts” of his views.

“It’s extraordinary that Skycity should cancel my speaking engagement on the basis of a newspaper article without contacting either me or the organiser of my speaking tour to check the facts on which it appears to be basing the cancellation,” he said.

“I have been welcomed as a speaker in New Zealand on many occasions and spent an enjoyable month as an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury more than 20 years ago. If New Zealand has become less tolerant of controversial views since then, that’s a matter for deep regret.”

In 1999, Singer’s first day as a lecturer at Princeton University was disrupted by protests as people in wheelchairs blocked the main university building.

In Practical Ethics, the philosopher wrote that this stance “does [not] imply lack of respect or equal consideration for people with disabilities who are now living their own lives in accordance with their own wishes.”

“Human babies are not born self-aware, or capable of grasping that they exist over time. They are not persons [therefore] the life of a newborn is of less value than the life of a pig, a dog, or a chimpanzee.”

Singer’s 1975 book Animal Liberation, which argues that utilitarian principles also apply to animals and veganism, is considered an influential text for animal rights activism.

His 1971 essay Famine, Affluence, and Morality popularised the analogy of the drowning child, which argues that people are morally obliged to donate as much as they can to humanitarian causes to save lives around the world. Singer donates 40% of his income to charities, as of 2017.

The philosopher is also due to speak in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne in June.