Peter Singer: Spend to Research

Posted by admin on Friday, October 29, 2021

 
Peter Singer Money Quote saying the amount spent on curing a particular illness would be the same proportion as those suffering from it. Peter Singer said:
 

 

“In an ideal world, the amount of money we spend on medical research to prevent or cure a disease would be proportional to its seriousness and the number of people who suffer from it” — Peter Singer

 

 

In this quote, Peter Singer seems to be outlining an ethical perspective on how medical research funding priorities should be determined. The best interpretation is:

• Singer states that ideally, spending on research for a given disease would correlate directly to how severe its health impacts are (“seriousness”) and how widespread the condition is in terms of affected individuals.
• He implies that allocating funds proportionally based on disease burden, using objective measures of severity and prevalence, would be the most fair and impactful approach.
• Singer appears to believe research dollars should target conditions causing the most overall suffering and societal costs, to maximize the benefits of limited funding resources according to his consequentialist view.

Overall, the quote conveys Singer’s normative position that allocating research money in direct relation to the true human and economic tolls of different diseases would represent the most rational and compassionate strategy from a utilitarian perspective focused on minimizing aggregate suffering. His view favors targeting research to where it can help the most people.