Professor Peter Singer rejects the sanctity of a human life ethic when it insists on the moral impermissibility of abortion. This ethic also insists that hastening the death of infants and adults who persist in a vegetative state or whose condition is terminal is always morally impermissible. Singer takes a quality-of-life ethic in place of a sanctity-of-life ethic. In this chapter, the author contrasts his views with Singer by disputing that the concept of personhood is given by a denumerable set of attributes, especially ones that privilege cognitive capacities. He questions Singer coupling speciesism with questions concerning severe human impairments. The author further challenges the primacy of the impartialist ethics that guides Singer's project. Thinking, rational reflection, the high cognitive skills required even for rudimentary speech remain a part only of what it is to be human and what it means to participate in the highest value.

Advances in the technology of communication devices and communication training have greatly expanded the proportion of affected individuals who can reacquire the ability to communicate. The growing body of knowledge and clinical experience related to supporting communication by means of assistive devices and techniques is known as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) or augmentative communication. There are many kinds of actions that can be sensed and converted into the equivalent of a switch closure or a computer keystroke. Just as devices can be categorized, device-users are often considered in terms of the disability that is at the root of their need for communication support. This chapter points out considerations that are often of special concern for particular disability groups. Communication devices could contribute considerably more, and may do so in the near future, in order to enable the citizens to express their full cognitive, social and emotional potential.