Protesters Block Nassau Street, Call for Princeton Professor Peter Singer’s Resignation

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About 40 people gathered on Nassau Street this afternoon to voice their opposition to Princeton University Professor Peter Singer’s views on providing medical treatment to infants with disabilities. At one point, the protesters marched in a circle on Nassau Street and called for Singer’s resignation, shouting “Hey hey, ho ho, Singer’s got to go.”

On April 16, Singer argued that it is reasonable for the government or private insurance companies to deny treatment to infants with disabilities. Singer’s remarks were made on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” which is broadcast on New York’s AM 970 and Philadelphia 990 AM.

Singer
Singer

Singer said health care laws like the Affordable Care Act should be more overt about rationing and that society should acknowledge the necessity of intentionally ending the lives of severely disabled infants. He said the health care system should not provide expensive care to infants who will experience “zero quality of life.”

“I don’t want to call him a  professor. I don’t think he can be a professor,” said one rally participant. “He’s talking about euthanization.”

The protest was originally going to be on the Princeton University campus, which is private property. The school allowed the protesters to be on campus.

“Princeton is strongly committed to ensuring the academic freedom of members of its community and to ensuring that the campus is open to a wide variety of views,” Princeton University Spokesman Martin Mbugua said.

11421628_10153430409337491_2013672353_nThe protest spilled into the street and people in wheelchairs blocked the intersection of Nassau Street and Witherspoon Street. The protesters were in the street for about half an hour.

Princeton Police Chief Nick Sutter said police officers were worried about the safety of the protesters. Cars were trying to pass the protesters while they were in the street.

“We politely asked the protesters to go back onto the sidewalks and we worked to get traffic cleared,” Sutter said.

This is not the first time people have rallied in opposition to Singer’s views. People have held protests in Princeton against Singer since Princeton University hired him in 1999.

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Avatar of Krystal Knapp

Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.

7 Comments

  1. If Professor Singer’s comments were directed at any other minority group he would be roundly condemned by the uber liberals at Princeton University. Instead he is allowed to regurgitate Nazi policy and pass it off as edgy thinking. Edgy, yes for 1939 Germany. This narcissistic hedonistic utilitarian should have seen his dayseventy years ago.

  2. These people keep chanting that they feel happy.
    And Singer (=Sanger in present tense) is the guy wielding the gong clapper.

  3. I agree with DAV….how does one person with such an ability to influence our future generation have the right to promote the killing of the least protected of our society? Is this Murder agenda for the creation of some kind of IDEALIZED society? Come on people we have to wake up…these types of hateful agendas don’t stop and lead us to become little less than animals.

  4. When Hitler started on his Final solution he started with children with disabilities then went to adults with disabilities. He assumed and correctly I might add that if he started with the disabled the rest of the country would turn a blind eye to it and become comfortable with mass exterminations. I mean hey it’s only people with disabilities RIGHT who cares probably did them a favor their better off dead right. We all know how that turned out. Well guess what it will not and can not happen again. people with disabilities won’t stand for it. If we killed all people with disabilities we would not have had a President that did wonderful things for our country. We would have killed the smartest man on the planet too. people with disabilities have a lot to give to the world and as the largest minority group on the planet we have one steadfast rule. Anyone can join us at any time we don’t discriminate against race, creed, color, religion or sexual identity. Tomorrow you could come down with a medical problem that will make you a person with a disability or a car wreck anything can and will happen. So if you are like this professor and want to get rid of all the people with disabilities just remember that we could become a member of our group at any second. and then it will be your turn on the euthanasia list.

  5. I admire Peter Singer for his articulation of the logical conclusions implicitly shared by many Americans. His conclusions lie at the end of the rode we embark upon equipped with a purely materialistic viewpoint. The consequences are instinctively abhorrent to most people unaware that their own unexined perspective leads to the same place. This is what so disturbed Thomas Nagel and inspired ‘Mind and Cosmos’

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