Soccer Dad

3 / 5

Fausta makes an interesting observation about Peter Singer's "human math."

If you go by Singer's "human math", where the ratio is 6 non-quadraplegic years : 10 years with quadraplegia, then you get 3/5.

I don't know about Singer's native Australia, but haven't we been at a "three fifths of all other Persons" attitude before?

Singer's comments, though, reminded me of something Charles Krauthammer wrote five years ago;

Second, if the cure for spinal cord injury comes, we have no idea where it will come from. There are many lines of inquiry. Stem cell research is just one of many possibilities, and a very speculative one at that. For 30 years I have heard promises of miracle cures for paralysis (including my own, suffered as a medical student). The last fad, fetal tissue transplants, was thought to be a sure thing. Nothing came of it.

As a doctor by training, I've known better than to believe the hype -- and have tried in my own counseling of people with new spinal cord injuries to place the possibility of cure in abeyance. I advise instead to concentrate on making a life (and a very good life it can be) with the hand one is dealt. The greatest enemies of this advice have been the snake-oil salesmen promising a miracle around the corner. I never expected a candidate for vice president to be one of them.

I emphasized Krauthammer's parenthetical comments because they serve as a rebuke to Singer who would presume to tell others what their lives are worth.