Princeton ethics professor’s book review OKs bestiality
The Layman Online, April 17, 2001
Peter Singer, ethics professor at the Presbyterian-founded Princeton University, has come out in favor of … bestiality.
In a recent review of Michael Dekker’s Dearest Pet: On Bestiality, Singer says “mutually satisfying activities” – his euphemism for sex across the species barrier – “ceases to be an offense to our status and dignity as human beings.”
Singer had already declared that other Biblical taboos – adultery, premarital sex, homosexual activity – were no longer offensive either. Singer’s ethics include a grace period to allow mothers to decide whether they will keep their newborn children or kill them. He also has advocated euthanasia for handicapped children and elderly people if it will make them happier.
In his review, posted on a Web site, Singer even brings former President William Clinton back into the picture. To demonstrate that American society has rejected the old sexual taboos, Singer wrote, “Some objected to President Clinton’s choice of place and partner, and others thought he should have been more honest about what he had done, but no one dared suggest that he was unfit to be president simply because he had taken part in a sexual activity that was, in many jurisdictions, a crime.”