Peter Singer is a professor at Princeton and humanist philosopher that believes that infanticide should be legal. Infants, he argues, are no more “human” than fetuses. They are not mentally aware or “viable.” They are a burden to their mothers. This may seem crazy to some people, but it is no more crazy than believing that a fetus is not a life. And so, I commend Singer for consistency. He is right about one thing. There is no difference between a fetus in the eighth month and a baby of eight months.
Nonetheless, Singer is seen as out there. Most feminists (male and female) who argue for the killing of the fetus would not argue for infanticide.
But Singer’s brand of consistency is spreading. Sara Boatright’s most recent column claims that men who get their girlfriends pregnant should not have to pay child support.
“Women in America have worked constantly to achieve the financial independence, freedom of thought and freedom of choice necessary to shape their own reproductive futures. It is possible, with the right amount of tireless effort, to raise a child alone or not have a child at all. Demanding a monthly paycheck from a one-time partner hardly does justice to our inherent strength,” she says.
This was in reference to a suit in which a man is trying not to pay his chid support payments on the ground that his girlfriend claimed at the time that they were having sex that she was incapable of getting pregnant and that she did not want children.
So, while this seems reprehensible, Boatright is correct. If we claim that it is a woman’s choice to kill her child on the premise that “choice” is the most important value in our society, then the law must recognize a man’s choice too. If a woman has the choice to end life, a man should have the choice to not financially support that life.
Who knows? Maybe this column is a sign that people are truly embracing their beliefs. Pretty soon, mothers will be able to kill their new borns and fathers won’t have to pay child support.
Isn’t it a beautiful world that we have created? Much better than one in which children are valued, dead beat fathers are held to account, and virtue, not selfishness is declared as the leading societal value. Who would want to live in that world?