The first half of today’s show features an interview with engineer and 9/11 truth advocate John Bursill, who has launched a new campaign to oppose a military strike on Iran. John has recently written an article on this subject which is posted at truthnews.com.au.
John has organised a protest against the impending Iran war:
24 March 2012
Sydney Town Hall
483 George, Sydney, NSW 2000
I hope to see you there!
In the second half of the show we look at a scandal which has erupted over the publication of an article in the the prestigious British Medial Journal which seeks to legitimise the killing of “unwanted” newborn babies.
The BMJ has published an article written by two Australian academics titled “After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?“. The substance of this article found its way to the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald, one of the top news publishers in the country.
The intellectual underpinning of the article appears to be along the lines of the bio-ethics of Princeton University professor Peter Singer. We can illustrate this by comparing quotes from Singer and the authors of the article noted above.
Singer (Biomedical Ethics for Engineers):
“Human babies are not born self-aware or capable of grasping their lives over time. They are not persons. Hence their lives would seem to be no more worthy of protection that the life of a fetus”
“The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual.”
“Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’.”
In Singer’s utilitarian philosophy “person-hood” is only granted via a complex equation that includes vaguely defined notions of “social utility” and the “greater good”. For Singer, a disabled child is not necessarily a “person”, and should be killed “if that was in the best interests of the baby and of the family as a whole”. How exactly killing a baby could be in the best interests of the baby is a mystery for us all to consider!
In the second half of today’s show we canvas some opinions on the subject from several TNRA listeners.
We look forward to hearing your comments on this shocking story!