Noted bioethicist Peter Singer told an audience in McCrary Theatre Thursday, Feb. 19 that everyone needs to do more to help the poorest members of the world community. Details...
Singer, founding President of the International Association of Bioethics, maintainted that the U.S. is not “targeting the poorest countries” in its efforts to combat poverty worldwide.
“(The U.S.) can give very significant amounts (compared) to people in other countries,” Singer said. He also said many individual U.S. citizens do not give to poor nations because they believe their taxes are going towards that purpose.
“I don’t think we can claim that our taxes are doing the work for us,” Singer said.
He argued that individuals have an obligation to help those less fortunate.
“It ought to be a requirement for a person, to be morally good, to contribute to those places that are amongst the poorest in the world,” he said.
Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Singer holds degrees from the University of Melbourne and Oxford University.
A prolific author, Singer’s latest book, “The Ethics of Globalization,” examines four issues from an ethical perspective, including climate change, the role of the World Trade Organization, human rights and foreign aid.
His appearance was sponsored by the Liberal Arts Forum, a student organization which suggests and selects speakers each year for the campus community.