Infanticide

A physician in a leading pediatrics magazine has attacked “religious mumbo-jumbo” about the “sanctity of human life.” The article, authored by Peter Singer of the Center for Bioethics in Australia, appeared in a recent issue of Pediatrics, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The academy is the principal group opposing the Reagan administration’s new rule demanding treatment of handicapped newborns. Singer argues that a “nonhuman animal: often has “superior capacities” over a “severely defective human infant,” that “species membership” is not “morally relevant,” and that life should be measured in terms of its quality. The academy is the largest professional organization for pediatricians.

Christianity Today, Sept. 2, 1983, Gen. 1:26-27.