misrepresenting singer

Since my previous post, I've noticed all kinds of people quoting Peter Singer for all the wrong reasons. I must admit, since Chris gave me Singer's book, Writings on an Ethical Life, I've been a big supporter. Unfortunately, others should read his book before they start talking about his views.

Via Randy Barnett at The Volokh Conspiracy , I found out about this quote from Tom Smith at The Right Coast:

I am thinking I would not let Peter Singer babysit my kids. In [his FAQ on his Princeton University website], he allows as how killing a newborn baby is not killing a person. What I want to know is, is killing a Princeton philosophy professor who thinks it's OK to kill a new born baby, killing a person?

Singer maintains in his book that life, regardless of the species, should be treated with the same level of respect. When we apply this principle to our society, then by permitting the destruction of animals, we allow ourselves the right to end human life that has the same intellectual capacity of those animals we've slaughtered, i.e. babies that are born brain-dead, mentally retarded adults, etc.

In a similar essay, Singer goes on to argue that newborns have the same ability of many of the animals we kill for our dinner - they're unable to make complex movements, they cannot feed or nourish themselves, they are unable to form intelligible communications. The exception is that those infants have the capacity to become fully-functioning adults. Singer argues that if we as a society wish to allow abortion, which is the termination of a fetus that has the capacity to become a fully-functioning adult, then there is no reason to ban the practice of infanticide.

I'll be the first to acknowledge that I don't agree with the extreme measures to which Singer applies his views, but I also understand he's not actually advocating the destruction of mentally-retarded adults or the infanticide of entire legions of babies. Rather, Singer is reminding us that if we continue, as a society, to use animals for our food and abortion as a means of birth control, then we are opening up the doors for such killings.

I want to know if Tom Smith ever read any of Peter Singer's books, and if he did, did he not realize his children's lives were not in danger?

[UPDATE]
I want to thank Randy Barnett at Volokh for updating his original post and including an excerpt from my blog. Also, welcome to all the first-time TTL readers; please peruse the archives and feel free to comment!