The choice of this [Mill's] philosophical foundation for the indoctrination of "ethics" at the Academy should be considered degrading and corrupt, and just plain evil.

The Naval Academy's ethical Mill

       Bioethicist Peter Singer, known as "Professor Death," for his radical views advocating the killing of physically handicapped infants, has taken up residence at Princeton University, where he will begin teaching this fall.  His appointment to an endowed chair in "human values" drew angry protests from from disabled persons, right-to-life advocates and religious groups (The Washington Times, July 23: "Forbes doesn't sway Princeton on radical Singer").
       Mr. Singer's teachings include the suggestion parents should have the right to kill their infants up to 28 days after birth if the children have severe disabilities.  At that age, he says, children don't understand what it means to be alive.  "Killing a defective infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person," Mr. Singer has written.  "Very often, it is not wrong at all."
       Oddly enough Mr. Singer's views have a direct connection to the U.S. Naval Academy's teaching in its new "Leadership and Ethics" program through a misinterpretation of John Stewart Mill--the 19^th century philosopher, who gave us "utilitarianism" as a guiding moral principle.
       In a previous letter (Forum, July 25) I discussed an "ethics" essay by a midshipman 3^rd class at the Academy.  That essay, titled "Preparing for the Future: Lessons Learned from Tailhook," won the year's top honors as the best "ethics" essay.  The midshipman used a brand of the "utilitarianism" philosophy now associated with John Stewart Mill to evaluate the Tailhook '91 bachannal and as guide to her own "personal" moral principles.
       There is a deep revelation in her choice of philosophy.  It reveals the mindset of professors who teach "ethics" at the Academy.  The choice of this philosophical foundation for the indoctrination of "ethics" at the academy should be considered degrading and corrupt, and just plain evil.
       John Stewart Mill is cited today as the ethical foundation for the modern-day suggestion that mentally and/or physically deformed babies should be destroyed.  For example, Peter Singer, author of 'Practical Ethics,' uses Mill's utilitarian philosophy to argue who is worthy to live.  He specifically targets the newborn.
       Mr. Singer is not alone in making this assertion.  Steve Pinker, in The New York Times two years age, argued that "we need a clear boundary to confer personhood on a human being and grant it a right to life."  He went on to argue that "the right to life must come…from morally significant traits that we humans happen to possess.  One such trait is having a sequence of experiences that defines us as individuals and connects us to other people."  A baby, it would seem, has not had such experiences.  Other traits, he argued, "include an ability to reflect on ourselves as a continuous locus of consciousness, to form and savor plans for the future, to dread death and to express the choice not to die."
       Under this definition any of us could have been killed right up to adolescence or even young adulthood--no doubt subject to a decision by one of the "anointed" New Totalitarians.
       Mr. Pinker observes that "several moral philosophers have concluded that Neonates are not persons…and thus neonaticide should not be classified as murder."  Rational observers [Michael Kelly, "Arguing for Infanticide," The Washington Post, Nov. 6, 1977] remind us that infanticide is rightly treated as a "greatly aberrant act, the very definition of a moral horror."
       Others [Ibid, Washington Times, July 12, 1999] remind us that "[Mr. Singer's] 'utilitarian' views fit right in with the 'thinking' that the Nazis used to justify their euthanasia programs on the physically and mentally handicapped before the Second World War, and that justified the forced sterilization of countless thousands of people in the U.S. and other Western countries because they were somehow deemed as lesser human beings."
       Another critic [Laura Schlessinger, "Killing 'unfit' babies a sick idea," The Washington Times, June 29, 1999.] offers an opposing 'worldview" to Mr. Pinker.  She notes that his view "that if killing the newborn hemophiliac induces the parents to have another child who is born without hemophilia, 'the loss of a happy life for the first infant is outweighed by the gain of a happier life for the second.'"  It seems thanks to, John Stewart Mill, we must reward those who seek the greater "happiness."  Even if it means neonaticide.
       The fact that the professors, who advised and taught the prize-winning midshipman in the "Leadership and Ethics" Department at the U.S. Naval Academy, have founded the character development program there on the philosophies of Immanuel Kant and John Stewart Mill is a testimonial to the bankrupt, corrupt, and yes, evil influence at one of the nation's premiere officer academies.
       The fact that this midshipman (and possibly many other midshipmen) choose this interpretation of John Stewart Mill as one of the guiding lights for her particular choice of "morals," under this indoctrination, is a disgrace--not for her, but for the Academy that subjects her to such a false creed.  Indeed, the same cancer that has invaded the heart of America's public education system and its way into the minds of at least some of America's youth who are sent to the Academy in loco parentis.
       America is not being well served by this covert operation under the cover of well-intentioned Naval officers who support the inculcation of true "ethics," the traditional ethics of Christiandom and John Paul Jones of (nicest sense of personal honor) in the future officer corps.
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Dr. Atkinson is the author of "The New Totalitarians" and "From Trust to Terror: Radical Feminism is Destroying the U.S. Navy."
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