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Articles
PETER SINGER VS. ST. JOHN PAUL II ON HUMAN DIGNITY
MARK BRADFORD
JULY 26, 2023
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Home › Articles › Peter Singer vs. St. John Paul II on Human Dignity
Peter Singer is probably a familiar name to many. For almost twenty-five years,
he has been the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center
for Human Values at Princeton University. His provocative statements around
animal rights and killing babies have often gained media attention and caused a
cultural ruckus. When he was appointed to his chair at Princeton, a headline in
The Guardian called him “the most dangerous man in the world.”
Singer supports infanticide and euthanasia, and in his advocacy for “animal
liberation,” he states that there is no real difference between the life of an
animal and that of a human. In the second edition of his book Practical Ethics,
he wrote that parents who have a child with Down syndrome should be able to
dispose of the infant so they have a chance of having “another pregnancy, which
has a good chance of being normal.” Some have called him “the most influential
ethicist alive.”
Singer restricts his definition of a person to one who is “capable of
anticipating the future, of having wants and desires for the future.” That, of
course, would exclude, or at least bring into question, the personhood and human
dignity of individuals with significant cognitive impairments.
As Roman Catholics, our faith teaches us to affirm the inviolable human dignity
of every person—period. While that sounds straightforward—and it is—defending
human dignity in the culture becomes complicated when we’re challenged to
consider specifically human pursuits like the desire for knowledge and virtue,
and other specifically human characteristics that contribute to human
flourishing.
Some may ask us how one who is cognitively impaired can pursue virtue and the
perfection of their abilities. How can they apply reason to resolve problems and
conflicts? Don’t we often say that what distinguishes us from animals is our
capacity for reason? What of the person whose ability to reason is impaired? We
must beware of using rationalistic terms to define the nature of a human person.
If we’re not careful, we may come very close to tacitly endorsing Singer’s
definition of “person” quoted above.
> A society that made room only for its fully functional, completely autonomous
> and independent members, would be unworthy of the human being.
Perhaps this is a reason many individuals with disabilities have a difficult
time finding acceptance in the Church. For most of us, it is easy to accept
those who are like us “normal folks” for whom reason, thought, conversation, and
expression come easily—we who can control our bodily movements and vocalizations
and meet social expectations of behavior and reverence.
Our brothers and sisters in the faith who are living with intellectual and
developmental disabilities present a challenge to us. What does it really mean
to be human? How do we do as Jesus asks and welcome the poor and the
marginalized? Do we acknowledge the Body of Christ in all of its members—even
those we perceive as different, those who may be impaired or disfigured, may
make us uncomfortable, or may annoy us at Mass with behaviors beyond their
control?
St. John Paul II, in his wisdom and clarity, helps us understand what is to be
gained by welcoming these brothers and sisters of ours in his message to
participants attending a symposium on the Dignity and Rights of the Mentally
Disabled Person:
> The starting point for every reflection on disability is rooted in the
> fundamental convictions of Christian anthropology: even when disabled persons
> are mentally impaired or when their sensory or intellectual capacity is
> damaged, they are fully human beings and possess the sacred and inalienable
> rights that belong to every human creature. Indeed, human beings,
> independently of the conditions in which they live or of what they are able to
> express, have a unique dignity and a special value from the very beginning of
> their life until the moment of natural death. The disabled person, with all
> the limitations and suffering that scar him or her, forces us to question
> ourselves, with respect and wisdom, on the mystery of man. In fact, the more
> we move about in the dark and unknown areas of human reality, the better we
> understand that it is in the more difficult and disturbing situations that the
> dignity and grandeur of the human being emerges. The wounded humanity of the
> disabled challenges us to recognize, accept and promote in each one of these
> brothers and sisters of ours the incomparable value of the human being created
> by God to be a son in the Son (emphasis added).
What are the consequences of not welcoming these persons into our communities?
John Paul II tells us that “a society that made room only for its fully
functional, completely autonomous and independent members, would be unworthy of
the human being.”
That is a statement worth several minutes of reflection.
I use the word “welcoming” rather than “including” intentionally here. Inclusion
is a word we typically use when we discuss bringing individuals living with
disabilities into our communities. It’s a good word, but if we use it
carelessly, we can give the impression that parishes are like a club with a
membership committee who decides who can be included and who can’t. The Church
is Jesus’ Body, and that decision is not ours.
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Obviously, St. John Paul II and Peter Singer have very different views of the
human person. Singer’s atheism blinds him to the beauty of humanity. I am sorry
for him. We aren’t just another animal prowling the earth.
As the late Holy Father taught us in his first encyclical letter, Redemptor
Hominis:
> Human nature, by the very fact that it was assumed, not absorbed, in [Christ],
> has been raised in us also to a dignity beyond compare. For, by his
> Incarnation, he, the son of God, in a certain way united himself with each
> man. (RH 8)
There is no exclusion in the penultimate word “each.” Each is not every. Each is
specific to the individual, regardless of ability or disability, wealth or
poverty, fame or obscurity. Each has “incomparable value [as a] human being
created by God to be a son in the Son.”
So many individuals living with disabilities don’t feel welcome in our parishes.
I have referenced the statistics before. But we can change that. A smile, a word
of welcome, an offer to assist, an embrace, joy and not signs of discomfort or
disapproval if an autistic parishioner praise God by flapping their arms or
vocalizing. These are signs of a welcoming Church.
TOPICS
* Disability
* ethics
* Euthanasia
* Human Dignity
* Pope John Paul II
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About the author
MARK BRADFORD
Mark Bradford was appointed Fellow for Persons with Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities at the beginning of 2023. For over 20 years, he has
been blessed to serve in leadership positions in various church ministries,
including as the founding president of the Jerome Lejeune Foundation in the U.S.
Mark and his wife Denise are parents to Thomas, their 6th child (and first son),
who happens to have been gifted with an extra 21st chromosome. Mark is a
passionate advocate for those born with intellectual and developmental
disabilities and their families. He especially advocates against the threat of
abortion following a prenatal diagnosis at every opportunity. The Bradfords
reside in the Philadelphia suburbs.
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