Hypocrisy has a whale of a time

Australian Christian Lobby

January 2008 Newsletter

The sad ironies between whaling and abortion are generally lost on the wider population. But one academic who likes to weigh in to both debates is the world-famous Australian ethicist at Princeton, Peter Singer.

In an article in The Australian this week entitled Hypocrisy on the high seas, he said it was wrong to kill whales because it caused pain and suffering to “social, intelligent animals capable of enjoying their lives”.

Most of us would not have a problem with this proposition.

However, writing in Melbourne’s Herald Sun last year, Singer said it was OK to kill unborn babies because “the fetus first becomes a being of moral significance when it develops the capacity to feel pain, some time after 20 weeks of gestation.”

He went on to say that even the grisly practice of partial birth abortion was OK as long as it was “performed in a way that minimises the possibility of suffering”.

The abortion debate is one to watch in 2008 with the Victorian Government signalling it wants to decriminalise the practice.

A key report will be handed down in March.

The Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has also signalled favour for decriminalisation.