Peter Singer: Now let me say something about the 
views of parents on this issue. Because
 that, of course, is relevant. And this 
is something about Down Syndrome.
Obviously, people with Down's are 
not profoundly retarded; it's not the 
kind of category I am talking about at
 all. But I did want to just give you 
a couple of comments that I've had
 when I've spoken about this issue, in 
terms of the views that parents have. 
Parents obviously do have a say in 
how their children should be treated, 
and I think that that's tremendously 
important. So that in debates about, 
for example, infants born with Down 
Syndrome and other complicating conditions
 that required surgery, some 
parents have said that they didn't
 want surgery performed because they 
didn't want to have a child with Down's.
 Other parents have said that they
did. And some have said, as Ann Bradley
 has said here [slide], that some 
people with children with Down syndrome
 wish that all of their children had 
this extraordinary syndrome, which 
replaces anger and malice, deletes anger 
and malice, replacing them with human 
thoughtfulness and devotion 
to friends and family.
So that's fine for parents who have
 this view and make that choice 
obviously. But there's also the contrary
 view that I've had expressed to me 
in letters when I've ... when my 
views have been publicized on these 
issues, about parents whose children 
have been saved by doctors when they
 were born, in this case, an extremely 
premature baby, although not 
actually as premature as many who are 
saved now, but who have had a lot of
 problems. And this woman wrote to me 
that had she known what was in store
 for her son, and had the doctors asked 
her whether they wished to incubate 
him, in other words, to keep him going 
on the ventilator so that he would 
survive, she would have said "No". 
She would have would have said, that 
would have been a gut-wrenching decision, 
but it would have been for the 
best, both best for her son himself, 
and for the family and the other 
children. So, the views of parents on
these issues go in both directions. 
And I don't think, therefore, resolve 
the question in a way, if you like, 
in favour of protecting life, in all 
cases. Rather, the arguments that I 
have suggested imply that parental 
choice ought to have an important role 
in decisions. At least in decisions 
for those with profound mental 
retardation, maybe in others as well.
I want to mention also the case of 
Ashley that received a bit of publicity
 last year, for those of you who heard
 about it. This was a case of a girl
 in Seattle. There was some dispute 
about how profoundly or severely her 
cognitive disabilities were. It was 
said that she can't walk or talk, keep 
her head up, roll over, or sit up by 
herself. She was fed with a tube, she 
didn't swallow and the case was 
controversial because her parents used 
growth attenuation to make her, to 
keep her small, and make her easier to
 care for, which involved operations 
like hysterectomy, removal of breast
 buds, and some hormone treatment, 
to ... so they could still pick her up
 and keep her with them. And they said 
that this was in her interest, for
 her benefit, so that she could travel 
on family holidays with them, and so 
on. Also, they said it would protect 
her from possible sexual abuse. Now, 
it was a controversial issue. But one 
of the things that I don't really 
agree with is the claim made in this 
Los Angeles Times article about it, 
which says that "This is about Ashley's 
dignity. Everybody examining the 
case seems to agree at least about 
that." Well, I mean again, as I a said 
before the term "dignity" is a very 
vague term. I would say that it's about 
what's in Ashley's best interests. 
We are prepared to use the term "best
 interest" for animals without too 
much hesitation. We know what that means. 
We're not prepared to use it for 
nonhuman animals . And I don't really 
think that someone as developmentally 
disabled as Ashley is described as 
being is actually someone with dignity 
in a sense we're prepared to
deny to nonhuman animals."
