BabyPiglet
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2003
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So, for in preperation for my english final, I was told to read this essay by Peter Singer.
I'll summarize if you don't want to read it.
Basically he says that everyone has an obligation to donate to charity. He quotes the movie 'Central Station'. In the movie, Dora is retired and living kind of meagerly. She is given the oppurtunity to make $1,000 if she brings this homeless boy to a house. She is told he will be adopted. Anyway, Dora does this and buys a television with her money. She is ecstatic until a neighbor tells her that the boy was too old to be adopted, and that his organs will probably be harvested and sold on the black market.
Singer says that's basically what we're doing when we choose to spend our extra money on material items instead of donating it to charity. We're letting someone die.
He also quotes a book 'Living High and Letting Die' in which the main character Bob is retired, and invests all his money into a valuable old car (a Bugatti). It's all the money he has left.
Anyway, one day Bob parks his car near some railway siding and walks along the track. As he does, he sees that a runaway train is heading up the track, right towards a boy he can see in the distance. The boy is too far ahead to warn. Bob is standing near a switch that can divert the train into his Bugatti, or he can let the train keep going, knowing it will kill the boy. He chooses to save his car, and the boy dies.
Again, Singer says that we're choosing material items over other people's lives. We all know that there are children out there starving because of poverty, and a mere $200 could support them for 4 years. Yet we would rathar spend that money on ourselves.
You should really read the essay, it goes into more detail. Anyway, in class today we were debating if anyone is ever obligated to give money to charity.
What's your opinion on the issue?
I'll summarize if you don't want to read it.
Basically he says that everyone has an obligation to donate to charity. He quotes the movie 'Central Station'. In the movie, Dora is retired and living kind of meagerly. She is given the oppurtunity to make $1,000 if she brings this homeless boy to a house. She is told he will be adopted. Anyway, Dora does this and buys a television with her money. She is ecstatic until a neighbor tells her that the boy was too old to be adopted, and that his organs will probably be harvested and sold on the black market.
Singer says that's basically what we're doing when we choose to spend our extra money on material items instead of donating it to charity. We're letting someone die.
He also quotes a book 'Living High and Letting Die' in which the main character Bob is retired, and invests all his money into a valuable old car (a Bugatti). It's all the money he has left.
Anyway, one day Bob parks his car near some railway siding and walks along the track. As he does, he sees that a runaway train is heading up the track, right towards a boy he can see in the distance. The boy is too far ahead to warn. Bob is standing near a switch that can divert the train into his Bugatti, or he can let the train keep going, knowing it will kill the boy. He chooses to save his car, and the boy dies.
Again, Singer says that we're choosing material items over other people's lives. We all know that there are children out there starving because of poverty, and a mere $200 could support them for 4 years. Yet we would rathar spend that money on ourselves.
You should really read the essay, it goes into more detail. Anyway, in class today we were debating if anyone is ever obligated to give money to charity.
What's your opinion on the issue?
